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! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, f 



THE 



PRECIOUS THINGS 



ST. PETER. 



REV. E. P. ROGERS, D. D., 

PASTOR OF THE SOUTH REFORMED CHURCH, NEW YORK. 






NEW YORK: ^ 

ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH ^ COMPANY, 
770 Broadway, cor. qth Srreet. 






The Library 
OP Congress 

WASHINGTON 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18T4, by 

Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 

In ttie Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 



EDWARD O. JENKINS, ROBERT RUTTER, 

PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, BINDER, 

20 N. WILLIAM ST., N. Y. 84 beekman street, n. y. 



TO 



The People of the South Reformed Church, 

WHOM FOR TEN YEARS 

I HAVE SERVED IN THE MINISTRY OF THE GOSPEL, 

AND FROM WHOM 

I HAVE RECEIVED MANY TOKENS OF RESPECT 
AND AFFECTION, 

\ Bedioate ibis Little l^olume^ 

WITH THE ASSURANCE OF THAT WARM CHRISTIAN LOVE 
WITH WHICH I AM, 

THEIR FRIEND AND PASTOR, 

E. P. ROGERS. 

South Church Parsonage, 
April I, 1874. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. — Precious Faith, 9 

II.— Precious Faith, . . . , . 35 
III. — Precious Faith, . . . . -59 
IV.— Precious Trial of Faith, ... 85 

V. — Precious Christ, 109 

VI. — Precious Blood of Christ, . . 133 
VII. — Precious Corner-Stone, . , . .149 
VIII. — Precious Corner-Stone, ... 171 
IX. — Exceeding Great and Precious Prom- 
ises, 193 

X.— Precious Stones, 205 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, 
to them that have obtained like precious faith with us 
through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus 
Christ : — 2 Peter i : i. 



THE PRECIOUS THINGS OF 
ST. PETER. 



CHAPTER I. 

PRECIOUS FAITH. 

IN the Epistles of St. Peter, we find much 
use made of the word- '* precious." He 
speaks of " precious faith," ^^ precious trial of 
faith," ''precious blood of Christ," ''Christ 
precious to believers," a " precious corner- 
stone," and *^ exceeding great and precious 
promises." Here is a circle of gems, of rare 
beauty and inestimable value. They are the 
treasures of the Christian. The humblest of 

(9) 



10 PRECIOUS FAITH. 

God*s saints may say, "All these precious 
things are mine ! *' 

This rich treasury is worthy of a special 
examination. We propose to pass through 
this store-house of God's grace, and look at 
the precious things which it contains. We 
believe that such an examination will be very 
profitable and pleasant. Much as we may 
have dwelt upon each of them, and however 
correct and appreciative may have been our 
views of them, as we have considered them 
singly, yet, when we examine them in their 
relations to each other, we shall see new 
beauty and find richer value. As a handful 
of jewels, each brilliant and costly by itself, 
when brought together in one cluster, com- 
bine and so increase their lustre and their 
value, so these precious things of St. Peter, 
gathered into one group, form a collection of 
gems of heavenly beauty and of priceless worth. 

The first of these, to which we direct the 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 1 1 

attention of our readers, is that which is pre- 
sented under the title of 

PRECIOUS FAITH. 

The word faith here, may be taken in its 
objective and its subjective sense. It may 
thus signify the truths which are revealed for 
the Christian's faith, and also the act of faith 
itself. When the Apostle Jude speaks of '' the 
faith once delivered to the saints,""^ he uses 
the word in the former of these two senses as 
the system of Christian doctrine, which the 
saints of God have received, and which they 
believe. When the author of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews declares, ^' Without faith it is 
impossible to please Him,"f he uses the term 
in the latter sense, as the act of receiving the 
truth ef God, and resting on it for salvation. 
So when St. Peter speaks of ''precious faith," 
it is proper to understand him to allude both 
♦ Jude 3. t Epis. to Heb. 11:6. 



12 PRECIOUS FAITH. 

to faith as a system, and to faith as an exercise 
and grace. And in both these senses he de- 
clares that it is '' precious/' 

The word "precious'' is derived from the 
\^?i\\x\ pretium (a price), and means that which 
costs something and has a value. In the ordi- 
nary use of it, the idea of peculiar value is as- 
sociated. When we speak of anything as 
precious, we are generally understood to con- 
vey the idea of more than ordinary value. 
As applied to the great truths of the gospel, 
to the faith delivered to the saints, the word 
is not too strong. We may well say of these, 
with St. Peter, '' precious faiths 

The great truths of the gospel are precious 
in themselves: 

The truths which pertain to God, to the 
human soul, to redemption by Jesus Christ as 
a divine and Almighty Saviour, to the office 
and work of the Holy Spirit, and to the fu- 
ture life, are, in themselves, the greatest, the 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



13 



most wonderful, the most beautiful, the most 
precious which the mind of man can receive. 
No truth in nature is so grand, as the truth 
of the divine existence. That memorable 
answer to the question — ''What is God?'* 
'' God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable 
in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, 
goodness and truth,'' as it doubtless was a 
true inspiration of the Divine Spirit Himself, 
presents to the mind a cluster of the most 
splendid and impressive attributes of being 
and character. The more we dwell upon it, 
the higher and broader it grows, until we are 
ready to exclaim : '' Canst thou by searching 
find out God? canst thou find out the Al- 
mighty unto perfection? It is as high as 
heaven ; what canst thou do ? deeper than 
hell, what canst thou know ? The measure 
thereof is longer than the earth, and broader 
than the sea!""^ Yet though the nature and 
* Job 1 1 : 7-9. 



H 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



methods of an infinite God must always, in 
many respects, be beyond the reach of a finite 
understanding, yet the simple fact of God is 
one of unspeakable value to the thoughtful, 
believing soul. As revealing the God of 
creation, this truth is precious. The instinct- 
ive desire to know the origin of things, to find 
the great first cause of all that we see, can de- 
rive no satisfaction from any theory but that 
with which God's .written word begins. It 
seems as if the Creator anticipated that His 
thoughtful creatures would desire, first of all, 
to know whence all things came ; to know how 
all the wonderful elements of the earth, and 
the splendid mechanism of the heavens first 
sprang into being. And so, in making a rev- 
elation to men (His very first declaration), 
He meets, at once, this instinctive and uni- 
versal demand of a thinking mind, with the 
true, comprehensive, satisfactory, and pre- 
cious declaration — '* In the beginning, God 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



15 



created the heavens and the earth. "^ How 
satisfactory to a rational mind ! How infi- 
nitely superior to the absurd theories of hu- 
man philosoph}^, the puerile negations of infi- 
delity, or the dicta of self-sufficient sciolists ! 
It is a ''precious faith*' — a faith of real value 
to the intellectual nature and necessities of 
man. I look out upon this wonderful world, 
greeting me everywhere with evidences of 
design and wisdom ; comt^ining elements of 
beauty, grandeur, usefulness, and pleasure ; 
crowded with every provision for the support 
and comfort of its vast population. I observe 
the graceful slope of the hills ; the rich fer- 
tility of the valleys ; the fragrance of the 
flowers ; the grandeur of the forests ; the 
vastness of the ocean, and the splendors of 
the heavens ; and I find it a very precious 
thing to have it told me that this order, and 
harmony, and beauty, are the work of an in- 
* Gen. 1:1. 



l6 PRECIOUS FAITH. 

finitely wise, and powerful, and benevolent 
God. It is a great satisfaction and rest to the 
instinctive craving of my nature, after an ade- 
quate cause of what I see, and of my own 
mysterious being, to believe that all things 
are of God. While unbelieving minds are 
ever tossed on a sea of restless inquiry, and 
unsatisfying speculation, and credulous fan- 
cies, I rejoice that I can say : " O Lord ! how 
manifold are thy vyorks ; in wisdom hast Thou 
made them all ; the earth also is full of thy 
riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein 
are things creeping innumerable, both small 
and great beasts. There go the ships; there 
is that leviathan whom Thou hast made to 
play therein. These wait all upon Thee, that 
Thou mayest give them their meat in due 
season."* I pity the man who cannot receive 
the truth that God made all things by the 
word of His power. I do not see how such a 
^ Ps. 104 : 24-27. 



PRECIOUS FAITH, I7 

man can ever have any true intellectual, to 
say nothing of spiritual rest. An orphan in a 
fatherless world ! The creature of accident, 
or fate ! All things around hira, the fruit of 
irrational forces. How cold and unsatisfac- 
tory and comfortless such a faith. It is not 
''precious." It has no real value. Let me 
cling all the more firmly to the simple, 
sublime revelation : " In the beginning, God 
created the heavens and the. earth !" 

And this faith is not only satisfying to my 
instinctive desire to know the origin of things. 
It is precious because of its enlarging and en- 
nobling influence upon my own mind. There 
is no idea with which the human intellect can 
have snch strong natural affinities as the idea 
of God. '' The fool hath said in his heart there 
is no God.*'"^ Presented to the mind, even of a 
child, it seems natural and intelligible, and as 
if it was made to fit the very peculiarities of 
*Ps. 14: I. • 
2 



1 8 PRECIO US FAITH. 

the mental constitution. A child cannot be a 
sceptic. Atheism, that compound of pride 
and credulity, cannot find congenial quarters 
in the unsophisticated mind of the young ; 
and the man who receives the idea of God 
cannot but feel the expanding and educating 
influence of it through all his intellectual 
nature. Robert Hall, in his splendid dis- 
course on modern infidelity, thus graphically 
and eloquently presents this thought : '' The 
idea of the Supreme Being has this peculiar 
property, that, as it admits of no substitute, 
so, from the first moment it is formed, it is 
capable of continual growth and enlargement. 
God Himself is immutable ; but our concep- 
tion of His character is continually receiving 
fresh accessions, is continually growing more 
extended and refulgent, by having transferred 
to it new elements of beauty and goodness; 
by attracting to itself, as a centre, whatever 
bears the impress of dignity, order, or happi- 



PRECIOUS FAITH. ig 

ness. It borrows splendor from all that is fair, 
subordinates to itself all that is great, and sits 
enthroned on the riches of the universe/' 

And what this fundamental idea of revealed 
rehgion does for the individual, it does for the 
community and the nation.- The verj^ idea 
of public virtue, order, and propriety is lost 
v^hen there is no recognition of this great and 
. precious truth among the people. A godless 
people never can be a virtuous people. All 
history testifies to this. A world without a 
maker, is, of course, a world without a ruler; 
and a world without a ruler can never be a 
world of stabihty, order, or happiness. 

The truth of God in Providence is one of 
the precious things of faith : 

The doctrine of providence naturally fol- 
low^s that of creation. The same reason which 
induced the Almighty to make the world, 
would induce Him to superintend and govern 
it. It is His creature— and He cannot throw 



20 PRECIOUS FAITH. 

it off to shift for itself. The government of 
all its parts and interests, in wisdom and 
goodness, tends as much to His glory as its 
original creation in beauty and symmetry. 
No man who had constructed, with great 
pains and cost, a beautiful edifice or an in- 
genious piece of mechanism, would naturally 
abandon all care and oversight of either when 
completed. 

The fundamental ideas in the doctrine of 
Providence are, that the whole created uni- 
verse is as dependent on God for its preserva- 
tion in being and harmony of operation as 
it was for its original creation; that every- 
thing animate or inanimate, in form and sub- 
staj|ce, in essence and in power, or quality, is 
preserved and guided, not by any intrinsic 
principle of life or motion, but by the wise 
and sovereign will of God. 

This is a part of " the faith once delivered 
to the saints.'' It has been held by the Church 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 21 

in all ages. And it is ^' precious faith'* It 
has a great value. It is full of comfort. It is 
the basis of all practical religion. The pres- 
ence of God, as a providential governor, 
everywhere, and at all times, ordering all 
things according to His own most wise and 
righteous will, for His own glory, and for the 
best good of His creatures, meets the wants 
of our moral nature. It is the foundation of 
trust, and hope, and submission. It is an 
anchor of the soul, amid those storms of trial 
and perplexity which vex the voyager on the 
sea of life. How intolerable would our lot 
be if we could not believe that *' the Lord 
reigneth.'' We must have a God to look up 
to and confide in — our very nature demands 
it ; our circumstances demand it ; we cannot 
live a day in real peace without it. It is a 
precious truth, that over this great world, in 
which is so much that baffles our reason, con- ^ 
founds our philosophy, and tries our patience 



22 PRECIOUS FAITH, 

and submission, no frantic chance or inexor- 
able fate presides, but the Lord God Omnip- 
otent reigneth ! I wonder that any thought- 
ful mind can be willing to live without the truth 
of God's providential government over the 
world. Atheism makes nothing of the world 
but a work-shop for the living, and a pit for 
the dead. Pantheism is sublimer in its theory, 
but no less cold and comfortless : ** One 
mighty tide of force, filling immensity, its 
waves, galaxies and S3^stems ; its foam spark- 
ling with worlds; one immeasurable ocean 
of life, swelling in endless billows through 
immensity, at its own vast, vague will. Such 
is, at once, the universe and the god of Pan- 
theism. The pantheist is himself one little 
conscious drop in the boundless tide, in the 
all-embracing infinite. In the branching of 
the stars, this infinite rushes out ; in the little 
flower at your feet, it lives. In all the em- 
bodying of human thought, in the rearing of 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 23 

nations and polities, in the building of towered 
cities, in the warring and trading of men, it 
finds a dim garment ; in the beauties, and 
grandeurs, and terrors of all mythologies, the 
grave look of the Olympian king, the still and 
stainless beauty of the woodland Naiad, the 
bright glance of the Son of Latona, the 
thunder brows of Thor, the dawn smile of 
Balder, it is more clearl}'^ seen. The beauty, 
which is the soul of art ; the majesty that lives, 
from age to age, in the statue of Phidias ; the 
smile that lingers on the perfect lip, and in 
the pure eye of a Madonna by Raphael, is its 
very self. You may look at it; you may by 
effort of thought, evolve it within you ; but 
the drop holds no converse with the ocean ; 
the great rolling sea hears not the little ripple 
on its shore ; you can hold no communion 
with your God ; your highest bliss is to cease 
individually to be, to sink into unconscious, 
everlasting trance.'* This, in the words of 



24 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



Peter Bayne,^ is pantheism. And in contrast 
with this vast, vague, comfortless picture, he 
gives us the Christian idea of the universe 
under the providential government of God : 
"An immensity, to the bounds of which, urge 
them never so wildly, the steeds of thought 
shall never pierce, thronged with ordered 
myriads of worlds, all willed into existence 
and ever upheld by a Being of whom tongue 
cannot adequately speak, or mind conceive, 
but who lit the torch of reason, who hears 
the voice of man, and whose attributes are 
dimly mirrored in the human soul. Conceive 
such a God, infinitely above this stupendous 
universe, filling it with all His light, as the 
sun fills the dew-drop (as distinct from it as 
the sun is from the dew-drop) ; to whom the 
countless worlds of immensity are as the prim- 
ary particles of matter comprising the dew- 
drop, are to the sun. Then add this thought, 
* ** The Christian Life — Social and Individual." 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



25 



that He, around whose throne, the morning 
stars forever sing, to whom anthems of praise, 
from all the star-choirs of immensity, go ton- 
ing on eternally from galaxy to galaxy, hears 
the evening hymn of praise in the Christian 
home, the lowly melody in the Christian 
heart, the sigh of the kneeling child ; and 
when his sojourn on earth is over, will draw 
up the Christian, as the sun draws up the 
dew-drop to rest on the bosom of infinite 
love." 

Such is the Christian idea of the world, 
under the providential government of a wise 
and loving God. Well may this article of 
faith be classed among those *^ precious '* 
things which St. Peter groups together in his 
epistles. 

But more precious than either the God of 
creation or of providence, is the God of re- 
demption to the believer. 

It is a precious, a valuable thing to know 



26 PRECIOUS FAITH. 

that this great world, and all the systems of 
worlds that make up the universe, are the 
work of the Almighty's fingers. It is also a 
very valuable truth that the world, thus made, 
is sustained and governed by its wise and be- 
nevolent Creator. But if this Creator and 
Sovereign of the world, whose wonderful 
power, wisdom, and goodness are declared 
by the earth, and reflected from the heavens, 
is not our friend, if we are not in harmony 
with Him, and cannot expect His personal 
favor and approbation, but must anticipate 
His holy displeasure. His moral aversion, 
then we can gain scanty comfort from the 
contemplation of His attributes as the Creator 
and Ruler of the universe. The more we see 
of these, the more fearful and appalling is the 
thought that all these wonderful attributes 
must be arrayed against us. If I am a sinner 
against God, and an unforgiven sinner, I can- 
not see the evidences of God's being, power, 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 2/ 

and goodness in nature and providence with 
any satisfaction or comfort. What is all this 
wisdom, this goodness, this power, but the 
attributes of a God who cannot look upon 
sin but with infinite abhorrence ! If He were 
not so wise, so powerful, so good, the thought 
of my personal relations to Him, as an unfor- 
given sinner, would not be so hopelessly sad 
and frightful. But He is infinitely wise to 
know all my sin ; He is infinitely pure to 
abhor my sin ; He is infinitely powerful to 
punish my sin. He can create worlds, and 
launch them forth into boundless space ; He 
can guide and govern their mighty move- 
ments by the word of His power. A holy 
being may look on Him in these relations 
with nothing but admiration, reverence, and 
joy. " But when I consider, I am afraid of 
Him \'^ I must know something more of God 
than creation or providence can teach me, 
■<* Job 23 : 15. 



28 PRECIOUS FAITH, 

before the deepest wants of my soul can be 
reached, and my most urgent necessities can 
be satisfied. And I do know something more. 
The *^ faith/'which is so precious to the hum- 
ble believer, tells me something more. It not 
only tells me that, *' In the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth," and that 
'' He doeth according to His will in the 
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants 
of the earth ;'' it tells me that most wonderful 
truth, that '' God so loved the world that He 
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life.''"^ Ah ! this is what I want to 
know. This answers that great question which 
must break in agonizing earnestness from 
every heart that knows anything of its sin- 
fulness and peril: ''What must I do to be 
saved ?" This shows me that there is a way 
by which this great and glorious God, whose 
* John 3 : i6. 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



29 



•hands have built the earth and spread the 
sky, and before whom all the mightiest forces 
of nature bow in mute submission, may be- 
come my loving Father and Friend,, even 
though I am, and always have been, a poor, 
unworthy sinner. 

This shows me that there is a w^ay by which 
He may be just, and yet the justifier of him 
that belie veth in Jesus ; that there is One who, 
human to suffer, divine to give dignity and 
value to suffering, human to feel the pang 
which the law denounces upon human guilt, 
divine to secure forever to every believing 
soul the benefits of that atoning pang, human 
to sympathize and divine to save, becomes 
just such a Saviour as I need, and is freely 
offered to me in the gospel. The great m3^s- 
tery of godliness, '' God manifest in the flesh," 
is the most precious of all the truths revealed 
to man. It is most precious in itself. It is so 
unprecedented in its benevolence, so unpar- 



30 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



alleled in its sacrifice, so superhuman in its 
conception, so infinite in its merit, and so 
unbounded in its saving power, that it com- 
mands the wonder of angels, and will forever 
inspire the profound and adoring gratitude of 
millions of redeemed souls, who have proved 
how precious it is. There is no story in all the 
annals of love, that has such elements of power 
and pathos, as the story of the Cross. Told 
in ever}^ language ; told by the mother to the 
child, by the teacher to the pupil, by the 
friend to his companion, by the preacher to 
his flock ; told in the abode of poverty or the 
home of wealth, in the home of sorrow or the 
abode of prosperity ; whispered in the ear of 
sickness, breathed to the mourning heart, 
spoken in the cell of the prisoner, at the 
couch of the dying ; preached on the scaffold 
or at the stake, it has always manifested itself 
as a precious truth — precious to the living, 
precious to the dying ; precious to the trem- 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



31 



bling sinner, precious to the believing Chris- 
tian ; precious to the pilgrim on his journey, 
precious to the saint in his rest. There are 
no rays of light that stream so sweetly over 
this dark world, as the rays that come from 
the Sun of Righteousness ; there is no bread 
so nourishing to the pilgrim on his toilsome 
way, as "the bread of life, which came down 
from heaven ;'* there are no waters so re- 
freshing to the thirsty soul, as those that gush 
from the " Rock of Ages f there is no friend- 
ship so disinterested, pure, and unchangeable 
as His who is *' a friend that sticketh closer 
than a brother \' there is no comforter in 
sorrow so equal to Him of whom it was said, 
" Jesus wept !'' there is no victory over death 
like that which He gives, who said : " I am 
the resurrection and the life/* 

This, then, is the " precious faith,*' of which 
St. Peter speaks, considered in its objective 
character as a system. God in Creation, Pro- 



32 PRECIOUS FAITH, 

vidence and Redemption, in its Alpha and 
Omega, its beginning and its end. All other 
important truths are embraced in these. The 
truth of God as a Creator and Governor, of 
Christ as a Saviour, of the Holy Spirit as a 
Sanctifier and Comforter, believed and illus- 
trated in the life, is all that we need to make 
us wise unto salvation. If you, dear reader, 
have opened your heart to this precious faith, 
if you have truly beheved in God, the Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost, you have already been 
enabled to say, precious faith, precious sys- 
tem of truth, precious in itself, precious to me, 
precious in life, precious in death, and pre- 
cious in an eternal heaven. 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



CHAPTER 11. 

PRECIOUS FAITH. 

WE have considered Faith in one of the 
senses in which the word is used — 
the sense of that system of truth which is 
contained in the written revelation which 
God has given to men, and which He calls 
us to believe. The fundamental truths of the 
being and government of God, and the sys- 
tem of redemption by Jesus Christ, are the 
vital points in that system. Whoever receives 
these great truths with the solid convictions 
of the understanding, the free consent of the 
will, and the warm embrace of the affections, 
is a true believer, and has been made wise 
unto salvation. He sees in them a heavenly 

(35) 



36 PRECIOUS FAITH, 

beauty and a divine grandeur, and can cor- 
dially assent to the truthfulness and propriety 
of the language of St. Peter, when he describes 
the gospel-system as '^ precious faith/' 

But the word faith is also very frequently, 
indeed, in most cases, used to signify that act 
of the mind, that grace of the heart, hy which, 
under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the be- 
liever receives these vital truths, and rests 
upon them for salvation. It is the grasp of 
the soul upon truth, its personal reception 
and appropriation of God's revelation, which 
is commonly meant by the term. Paul so 
understood it when, in answer to the earnest 
question of the jailer at Phihppi, '' Sir, what 
must I do to be saved ?" he answered, ^^ Be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved.'' So the word '' faith " is used 
in that wonderful eleventh chapter of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, which is such a 
splendid description of its nature, its heroes, 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 37 

and its triumphs. It is the act of the indi- 
vidual soul, by which, under the influence of 
the Holy Spirit, it freely and cordially em- 
braces the cardinal doctrines of the gospel, 
and, receiving and resting upon them for 
its hope of salvation, exemplifies and illus- 
trates them in the daily life and conversa- 
tion. 

Yet there is scarcely any subject so simple, 
and at the same time so vital, about which so 
much diffiulty gathers in the mind of inquir- 
ers, as about this article of saving faith. The 
ordinary definition of the term is behef, trust, 
confidence — the reception of testimony. Natu- 
ral faith may be thus defined. There are 
some propositions which command our faith 
as soon as they are presented to the mind. 
We believe that two and two make four, or 
that the whole of a thing is greater than one 
of its parts, because we cannot help it. The 
mind is so constituted that it must receive 



38 PRECIOUS FAITH, 

these statements as true, because the contrary 
involves an absurdity. So we believe in the 
life, achievements, and death of Julius Caesar, 
because the historic evidence is clear and 
satisfactory as to these facts. But this sort 
of faith does not exhaust the idea of religious 
faith. Faith in the mere facts of history, or 
the axioms of mathematics, has not, neces- 
sarily, any operative principle connected with 
it. Our faith in Julius Caesar is not a faith 
that exerts any special influence on our life. 
We neither do, nor refrain from doing, any- 
thing because we believe in Csesar, which we 
might not equally do, or refrain from doing, 
if we did not believe that he ever existed. 
The current of our daily lives would flow on 
in its ordinary channels, quite undisturbed by 
our faith, or our want of faith, in the distin- 
guished Roman. So we may profess a faith 
in the historic facts of Christianity, in God 
and Christ, and a future state, which is no 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 39 

more religious faith than our belief in the 
facts of Roman history. 

That is the highest form of faith, which not 
only implies the assent of the understanding, 
but includes, also, the consent of the will, the 
choice of the heart, and the devotion of the 
life. One of the finest instances of this kind 
of faith, inspired only by natural objects, and 
exercised only on material things, is presented 
in the history of Christopher Columbus. He 
believed that there was an undiscovered pass- 
age to the East, and this faith became the con- 
trolling power and principle of his life. In 
the face of ridicule, opposition, and persecu- 
tion, he boldly proclaimed and maintained his 
theory. No sneers of the learned ; no ribaldry 
of the mob ; no opposition of friends ; no in- 
vective of foes, could affect his invincible con- 
fidence in what was unseen, unknown, and 
purely a matter of faith. The world knows 
by heart the story of his faith, his toils, and 



40 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



his triumphs. AH over Christendom, paint- 
ing and sculpture and monumental piles, re- 
cord the grand history. They tell of the 
power of faith in things unseen, even in natu- 
ral lines, upon an earnest soul. 

This sort of faith, inspired by religious truth, 
and directed to religious objects and ends, is 
what we call evangelical faith. This is the 
faith that saves the soul. When a man is con- 
vinced of the truth of the doctrines of relig- 
ion, gives to them the assent of his mind, the 
affiance of his affections, and then allows them 
to be the controlling principle and force of his 
daily life, then he believes with that faith which 
saves. He who thus believes " shall be saved." 

This faith, however, must be exercised on 
the authority of a '' Thus saith the Lord.'* It 
is concerned with the direct revelation of God. 
It deals with facts, and not with philosophies ; 
with revealed, and not with secret, things. 
There are some who stumble here. They com- 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 4 1 

plain of the mysteries of religion as inconsist- 
ent with intelligent faith. They say that they 
cannot believe what they do not understand. 
God does not require this. He requires faith 
in factSj and not in modes or philosophies. 
It is quite possible and rational to believe a 
fact, when we do not understand the theory 
that is behind it. A man may believe that a 
steamer can cross the ocean against wind and 
tide, though he may be entirely ignorant of 
the mechanism and the philosophy of the 
steam-engine. A child can tell the time of 
day by a watch, though the method of its 
working may be utterly incomprehensible to 
him. I can believe the fact that the golden 
grain that waves so richly on the field in the 
summer, is the product of the seed that was 
sown in the spring. But no mental effort can 
enable me to master the mystery of its won- 
derful multiplication. 

Why, then, is it irrational to believe the 



42 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



fact of the divine existence, and exercise 
proper emotions in reference to that fact, 
even though the nature of Deity must be an 
insoluble mystery to a finite mind ? Why is 
it irrational to believe in the fact of salvation 
by the Lord Jesus Christ, and to be filled 
with love and gratitude to Him, even though 
we cannot fathom the metaphysical difficul- 
ties of His two-fold nature in a unity of per- 
son? Why can we not believe fully in the 
fact of the enlightening and renewing in- 
fluences of the Holy Ghost, even though the 
exact mode of His working in the soul is as 
mysterious to us, as it was to Nicodemus of 
old? We are not called upon to believe the 
philosophy, but to receive the facts of the 
divine revelation. We acknowledge the jus- 
tice of this principle every day. There are 
but a very few of the things which we firmly 
believe in natural relations, the philosophy or 
modus operandi of which, is not a mystery to 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



43 



us. Who can understand the law of life by 
which these hearts beat, and these limbs 
move, and this wonderful machinery of our 
bodily frames keeps running on in regular 
and harmonious operation? The world is 
crowded with facts which we implicitly be- 
lieve, yet the mode or philosophy which is 
behind them, we never think of comprehend- 
ing. Why is it irrational to ask that we exer- 
cise faith in the great facts of Christianity, 
even if we cannot fathom the infinite myste- 
ries which are behind and beneath them. 

The first element, therefore, in a true faith, 
is a firm conviction of the truth of what God 
has revealed in His Holy Word. There must 
be a complete submission of the understand- 
ing to the teachings of revelation. The facts 
of the Gospel, supported as they are by abun- 
dant and conclusive testimony, must oebehev- 
ed. But here, there is sometimes an error on 
the part of the inquirer. When we say that what 



44 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



the Gospel reveals must be fully believed, we 
do not say that all that men may embody in 
creeds and systems of theology needs thus to 
be received. Saving faith is concerned only 
with those broad, fundamental, vital truths, 
which are accepted by the general consent of 
the Christian mind of all ages, as essential to 
salvation. There has always been a disposi- 
tion among sects and theologians to demand 
faith in all the articles of their favorite creeds, 
as an essential to Christian fellowship. And 
it is the custom with some churches now, 
to require of their members to profess their 
faith, not only in the few essential doctrines 
of the Gospel, but in those higher mysteries 
about which Christians have differed, and still 
differ honestly, and which are not so much 
the integral parts of the evangelical system, 
as planks in a denominational platform. And 
this is a stumbling-block, and an offence to 
many sincere and honest souls. Their views 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



45 



are clear on the vital truths of repentance 
towards God and -faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ ; but in regard to other points of 
theology or metaphysics, they have no intel- 
ligent or fixed opinions. So they fear that 
they are not believers, because they cannot 
accept the dogmatic statements of theolo- 
gians, or the creeds which denominations 
would fain enforce upon those whom they 
invite to their fellowship. 

But if the great vital truths of our holy re- 
ligion — those which pertain to the being and 
government of God, the person and work of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spir- 
it; those which cluster round the Cross of 
Christ; the great truths of sin and redemp- 
tion — are truly received into the mind, this is 
all that is needed for the first element of sav- 
ing faith. Let me truly believe that I am the 
child of an infinitely wise, just and good 
Heavenly Father, whom I ought to love, 



46 PRECIOUS FAITH, 

honor and serve, and that is all that I need to 
believe about God. Let me believe that I am 
a sinner against Him, and need Flis forgive- 
ness, or I cannot be happy ; that is essentially 
all that I need believe about myself. Let me 
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ came from 
heaven to earth, to obey, suffer and die for me 
as a sinner, and that, by the power of the Holy 
Spirit, I may become a saved man by the merit 
of His obedience, death, and intercession ; this 
is all I need to believe about Christ and re- 
demption. And if I believe that I ought 
humbly and gratefully to endeavor to be like 
Christ, and try to please Him in all that I do, 
this is all that I need to believe about the 
Christian life. How simple is this creed ! 
And yet it comprehends all that is needful 
to be received by the understanding, in 
order that a man may be made wise unto 
salvation. A little child can receive these 
vital truths with a real faith, and become 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 



47 



thus a son or a daughter of the Lord Al- 
mighty. 

Next to this cordial assent of the under- 
standing to the vital truths of the Gospel^ 
must come the warm grasp of the heart, and 
the sincere devotion of the life. We are not 
only to be convinced of the truth of the Gos- 
pel, but we are to rejoice in that conviction. 
The assent of the mind must also ensure the 
consent of the will. This is not always the 
case. A man may feel obliged to admit the 
truth of certain propositions, but the more he 
sees that they must be true, the more distaste- 
ful do they become to him. He wishes they 
could be disproved. ,He does not want them 
to be true. And when he is forced to believe 
them, he resolves that he will never love them. 
This is not true faith. It does not work by 
love. But when the conviction of the mind 
implies also the choice of the heart, then there 
is saving faith. 



48 PRECIOUS FAITH, 

Now, it may be claimed for the cardinal 
truths of the Gospel, that they themselves 
appeal, not only to the understanding, but 
also to the heart They are not, like the prin- 
ciples of natural science, a mere philosophy, 
cold and emotionless. They are fitted to stir 
up the sensibilities ; to rouse the passions ; to 
elicit the emotions ; to inspire the affections 
of the believing soul. Take the fundamental 
truth of God, our Father, our Redeemer, our 
Comforter — God in Creation, in Providence, 
and in Redemption — surely these are not 
truths to be merely the themes of cold intel- 
lectual speculation ! The whole affectionate 
nature of man is so formed as to cling to the 
idea of God, as a Father whose tenderness* 
and love are ever freely offered to his children. 
How beautiful are the images under which 
God represents Himself to our faith ! '^ Like 
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord 
pitieth them that fear him.'' '^As one whom 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



49 



his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." 
" Can a woman forget her sucking child, that 
she should not have compassion on the son of 
her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will 
I not forget thee?" It is scarcely possible for 
language to express more of tenderness and 
affection, more that appeals to the best sensi- 
bilities of an ingenuous soul. And w^hen we 
turn to God in Christ, and receive the one 
great, blessed fact of redemption, surely there 
is nothing in all the annals of love that ap- 
proaches it in its appeal to the affections. How 
perfectly heart-breaking, in their pathos, are 
those words of the Scripture which speak of 
the love of God in redemption ! No familiar- 
ity with them can ever destroy that element 
of inimitable tenderness which is so conspicu- 
ous in them : '' For God so loved the world, 
that he gave his only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." '' For scarcely for a 
4 



50 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



righteous man would one die ; yet, peradven- 
ture, for a good man, some would even dare 
to die. But God commendeth his love to- 
ward us, in that while we were yet sinners 
Christ died for us/* If a man really believes 
such truths as these, his heart must be thrilled 
to its centre by their power. To be indiffer- 
ent to them, he must be less than man. But 
he is not indifferent to them. Multitudes of 
believing souls have broken the alabaster box, 
and poured its sweet and fragrant offering of 
grateful and adoring love upon the Saviour's 
head. Multitudes of redeemed and rejoicing 
spirits have been able to say, as they shrined 
the loved image of their Lord in their grate- 
ful hearts, '^ Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? 
and there is none upon the earth that I desire 
besides Thee.'' They have echoed the earn- 
est words of St. Paul : " God forbid that I 
should glory, save in the cross of Christ Jesus, 
my Lord." It is not a thing of mysticism or 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 5I 

fancy, this ^^ faith which worketh by love ;'* 
it is a sweet and blessed reality. Faith is 
more than conviction, higher than mere be- 
lief It is a clasping of the mighty arm of 
the Great Father — a resting on the bosom of 
the loving Lord. It is looking to God wdth a 
love that soars up into reverence, with a 
reverence that melts back into love : 

'* No earthly father loves like Thee, 
No mother half so mild, 
Bears and forbears, as Thou hast done, 
With me. Thy sinful child." 

And again this sacred poet"^ says : 

" O Jesus ! Jesus ! dearest Lord ! 

Forgive me, if I say. 
For very love, Thy sacred name 

A thousand times, a day ! 
O light in darkness ! joy in grief ! 

O Heaven begun on earth ! 
Jesus ! my love, my treasure, who 

Can tell what Thou art worth ?" 

* Faber. 



52 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 



This is the language of a heart that truly 
believes the great sweet truths of redemption ; 
that takes in the story of the Cross ; that hath 
known and believed the love that God hath 
to us. To such a believing soul, the devotion 
of the life to God and His service is not a 
hard or unnatural thing. With the truth fixed 
in the convictions of the understanding, em- 
braced with the warm grasp of the heart, it 
would be strange, indeed, if the life did not 
show its operative influence. All the figures 
under which the Bible represents the normal 
relation of man to God, imply the idea of de- 
votion and service. The believer is a son of 
God. In the idea of sonship is involved, not 
only faith in the being and affection for the per- 
son of the parent, but a cheerful, generous obe- 
dience to His will. The believer is, in a high 
sense, a servant of God ; not in a degrading 
or servile relation, but as one whose dignity 
and pleasure lie in his faithful devotion to his 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 



53 



Lord. The believer is a soldier in God's 
army. But the prime element in a soldier's 
duty is to be loyal and obedient to his com- 
mander. The believer is a steward of God. 
And a steward is, of course, to be careful of 
his Lord's interest and faithful in his devotion 
to Him. Thus, every aspect in which a be- 
liever is presented in the Scriptures, repre- 
sents him as one who believes in God — loves 
God, and is consecrated to God's service. 

Faith, therefore, implies the conviction of 
the understanding, the choice of the heart, 
the devotion of the life. Belief, love, and 
service, are its essential elements. There is 
no mystery about this Christian grace. It is 
a natural, simple, beautiful thing. It is illus- 
trated by many analogies, but best by the 
filial relation. What a dutiful child, by the 
common consent of mankind, should be to a 
good parent, faith would have us all be that 
to God. If you, dear reader, wish to know 



54 



TRECIOUS FAITH, 



whether you have true faith, ask yourself, if 
you are a parent, " What do I wish my child 
to be to me T Your own heart will give you 
the answer: "I want my child to trust me 
with a firm, intelligent confidence ; to love 
me with a free and cordial affection, and to 
obey me, in all rightful things, with a cheer- 
ful and generous obedience/' And your child 
will do this in the main, if he has true faith in 
his father. He may not always rise above the 
little weaknesses and errors of youth, nor will 
you expect that. But in the main, he will 
show his faith by his works, and you will be 
satisfied. And you will be wise to bear with 
all his youthful follies, and tender to forgive 
his little delinquencies, secure as you are of 
his faith and affection. And so it is with our 
Heavenly Father. Faith brings us into such 
a relation to Him, that, ^' like as a father piti- 
eth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that 
fear him. For he knoweth our frame ; he re- 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 



55 



membereth that we are dust/' This is a sweet 
and comforting assurance. God never forgets 
that we are children, and is always tender 
and considerate of us, knowing our ignorance 
and imperfections, and bearing and forbearing 
with us as we need. 

And faith is a principle capable of growth 
and progress. Many fear that they do not 
have any because their exercises are feeble, 
and like those of a child. But this is not a 
just conclusion. The Christian is not born 
full grown, but a babe in Christ. And, as in 
the case of a new-born child, all the develop- 
ments of the new^ life are feeble, though they 
are real. If your faith, dear reader, is not as 
strong and assured as that of a mature Chris- 
tian, it may still be the faith of a little child. 
And if you cherish and cultivate it, it will 
grow. Like life, it thrives by culture, and 
not by^ neglect. Express it, rather than re- 
press it, if you would have it increased. It 



56 PRECIOUS FAITH, 

may be like '' the blade/' but, with proper cul- 
tivation, according to the Saviour's own teach- 
ing, it will soon be ''the ear," and then '* the 
full corn in the ear/' 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



CHAPTER III. 

PRECIOUS FAITH. 

IN the last chapter, we defined faith in its 
subjective sense, as involving the assent 
of the understanding, the choice of the heart, 
and the devotion of the life to the vital truths 
of the gospel. It is in this sense that the 
word is most used in the New Testament. 
This is the '' faith that worketh by love." 
This is the faith that saves the soul, and over- 
comes the world. And this faith is styled by 
St. Peter '' precious.'' 

There are two senses in which the word 
*' precious'' may be used. One signifies cost- 
liness, and suggests the idea of a great price. 
The other signifies intrinsic practical value. 

(59) 



6o PRECIOUS FAITH. 

A thing may be precious in one of these 
senses, and not in the other. It may be costly, 
without being valuable. It may be valuable, 
without being costly. 

Faith, however, is precious in both senses. 
It is costly, and it is valuable. It is costly, 
because, in order that we might be saved by 
it, the mighty sacrifice was needfiil of the 
manger and the cross. The object of saving 
faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. The subject 
of faith is His atoning work. That work con- 
sisted of His humiliation, obedience, suffering, 
and death. '^ For ye were redeemed not with 
corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with 
the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb 
without blemish and without spot.'* '' He 
was wounded for our transgressions ; He was 
bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement 
of our peace was upon Him, and with His 
stripes we are healed.'' Had it not been for 
this infinite sacrifice, there would have been 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 6 1 

nothing for us to believe ; and, consequently, 
there could have been no such thing as saving 
faith. But '' God so loved the world, that He 
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in Him, should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." So that, in a true sense, 
faith is exercised at the expense of the suffer- 
ings and death of the Son of God. It is true 
that these sufferings were voluntary. The 
atonement was no arbitrary proceeding. '^ No 
man,'' said Jesus, and He never made a more 
august declaration, or gave more convincing 
evidence of His divine character ; '^ No man 
taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of 
myself. I have power to lay it down, and I 
have power to take it again.'* But the volun- 
tary character of the atonement does not de- 
preciate its value, does not lessen its costliness. 
It magnifies it. When David, in his thirst, 
longed for a drink from the well at Bethlehem, 
and three of his bravest warriors cut their 



62 PRECIOUS FAITH. 

way through SauFs army, and brought the 
sparkling water at the hazard of their lives, 
to their thirsty leader, David valued the gift 
all the more highly, because it was the fruit 
of a free and affectionate devotion to him. It 
was too costly for him to drink, and so he 
poured it out as an offering to the Lord. So 
the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ is 
all the more precious, because it was the fruit 
of His infinite love. But it was very costly. 
Measure the distance from the bosom of the 
infinite Father to the virgin's arms ; from the 
radiance of a glorious heaven to the darkness 
of Gethsemane ; from the throne of eternal 
power to the bloody cross, and you may be 
able to comprehend what that transaction cost, 
on which your faith is founded. Faith in the 
voluntary sacrifice of the Son of God must 
be '' precious faith/' 

But faith is also precious in itself. It is not 
only costly, but it is valuable. It is precious, 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



63 



because it brings us into right relatio7ts to 
God, 

It has been well said that ^' Religion is to be 
regarded not as an acquisition, but a restora- 
tion ; not as the gaining of a new friend, or 
home, but as the recovery of a lost father; the 
going back to a former home, hallowed by 
ancient memories, and reviving in the heart a 
thousand dormant associations/* Thus there 
was great force and propriety in the language 
of the prodigal, '' I will arise and go to my 
father/' Sin is not the normal condition of 
the soul, any more than blindness is of the eye, 
or lameness of the foot. There is an article 
of faith which is sometimes spoken of as '' the 
natural depravity of man." We object to this 
language. We think it teaches what is not 
true. Not that we question the great sad 
fact of human corruption. No man who has 
candidly studied his own heart can be in any 
doubt on that point. We cannot doubt '' the 



64 PRECIOUS FAITH. 

depravity of human nature/' but this is a dif- 
ferent thing from '^ natural depravity." This 
depravity is dreadfully unnatural. It is some- 
thing diseased, corrupted, apostate, degener- 
ate, fallen in man. He was made upright, in 
harmony with God, and truth, and moral rec- 
titude. This was his normal state. Adam, in 
the innocence of his first creation, on inti- 
mate and endearing terms with his Maker, 
was in his natural condition. But when he 
was afraid to meet God, and hid from Him 
among the trees of the garden, he was in an 
unnatural, abnormal state ; and in this same 
state all his children are, until faith brings 
them back to their original and natural con- 
dition of harmony with God, and with truth 
and duty. 

Now, it is a law of all being, that an unnatu- 
ral condition is an unhappy condition. When 
the eye is inflamed, irritation and pain is the 
unavoidable result. When a tiger is confined 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 65 

in a cage, he is restless and miserable. The 
wild freedom of the jungle is his natural state, 
and he cannot be at ease when a captive. 
** The deepest unrest is ever that of things or 
beings in an unnatural or distorted condition ; 
the unrest of aberration from a proper place 
or course, and so of interrupted harmony and 
equipoise. The restless streams and brooks 
fret their mountain channels, till they reach 
their proper depths in river or sea ; and the 
waves of the sea itself, disturbed by the storm, 
heave and sway themselves to rest in their 
natural and common level again. The thun- 
der-storm is but the voice of Nature*s unrest 
when the balance of her elements is disturbed, 
and she seeks to regain the wonted repose of 
harmony and law." 

This is emphatically true of an mtellectual, 

moral, and accountable being, who is out of 

harmony with God. The language of the 

Bible is not overstrained, when it says, '* The 

5 



(£ PRECIOUS FAITH, 

wicked are like the troubled sea, when it can- 
not rest/* Man, though fallen and corrupt, is 
yet at times true enough to the promptings 
of his original and real nature, to be very- 
restless and miserable in his apostate condi- 
tion. Disquietude, dissatisfaction, and disgust 
are frequent visitors to an unbelieving and 
unreconciled spirit. There are many men 
who scarcely know what is the matter with 
them. They are so restless — so unsatisfied ; 
often so positively unhappy. They imagine 
that their physical system is deranged — they 
say that they are ^* nervous \' they go to their 
medical adviser for counsel, and he prescribes 
diet, or exercise, or travel, or change of occu- 
pation. Alas ! the malady is deeper than the 
nervous system. It is a disease of the moral 
nature, and its remedy is faith. My dear 
reader, when you are conscious of feverish 
desires, when you sigh under the wearing 
toils and cares of life ; when you feel like say- 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



67 



ing, " Oh, that I had wings like a dove, then 
would I fly away and be at rest ;" be assured 
that this is the evidence that you are out of 
your normal relations, that your soul has lost 
its true level ; and seeks it in vain. And when 
the passions of your heart break out, as they 
sometimes do in wilder storms, and you seem 
to toss on a troubled sea, the proof accumu- 
lates that you have fallen from your rightful 
place ; that sin is treason to yourself as well 
as to God, and that you can know no real 
and abiding peace until you listen with faith 
to Him who says, " Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest." 

Faith, then, is precious, because it brings us 
into right relations to God. He is no longer 
an object of dread and aversion. We no long- 
er are afraid when we consider Him. He 
becomes our Father reconciled in Christ, and 
we are assured that He loves us as the sons 



68 PRECIOUS FAITH, 

and daughters of the Lord Almighty. In a 
sense of forgiveness and reconciliation, the 
soul ^' regains its lost equilibrium, and finds 
again the centre of repose, for which it has 
been sighing in vain/' God in creation is its 
Father. It associates Him with all that is 
beautiful on the earth, and all that is grand in 
the heavens. New brightness to the sunshine ; 
new fragrance to the flower ; new beauty to 
the field ; new grandeur to the ocean, is in the 
gift of faith — our " Father made them all!'' 

God in Providence is the God of the be- 
liever. All things work together for his good. 
The changing seasons, and the rolling years ; 
the crosses and the delights ; the cradles and 
the coffins ; the disappointments and the tri- 
umphs of this changing scene, are not to him 
the play of chance, or the movements of fate, 
but the ordering of a wise, benevolent, faith- 
ful God, who '' doeth all things well/' Amid 
all vicissitudes and conflicts, here is a place 



PRECIOUS FAITH, gg 

of rest, comfort, and security, '' the Lord reign- 
eth/' When unbehef is gone, and doubt no 
more disturbs the mind ; when God is chosen 
as the resting-place and joy of the heart ; when 
a man who has groped about in the darkness 
of scepticism, or the pride of unbelief for 
something to cling to as an anchor amid the 
storms of life, trusts himself and all that he 
has and is, in the hands of God his Father 
and Saviour, then he is kept in perfect peace, 
and, like a weary child, rests in the everlast- 
ing arms. Such a faith is precious. It has a 
great value in a world like this, where so 
much of ^^the trail of the serpent'' is left. 
And God in redemption also, becomes un- 
speakably precious to the believer. For the 
deepest unrest of the soul is not caused by 
sorrow, but by sin. '' The spirit of a man can 
sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit 
who can bear?'' Faith in a crucified Sav- 
iour; faith in a finished atonement; faith in 



70 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



an all-powerful iutercession ; faith in a per- 
fect righteousness ; faith in a purchased and 
free salvation, can bring a sense of pardon 
and peace to " the very chief of sinners ;" 
can take away the pangs of a reproving con- 
science, extract the sting from death, and rob 
the grave of its victory. All this is the natu- 
ral result of a restoration of fallen man to 
his right relations to God ; the return of the 
prodigal to his Father's house, the recreation 
of the lost image of the Maker, in man, the 
noblest of his works. 

Faith is also precious in its relation to the 
two great conditions of life, action, and endur- 
ance. 

Our great business in life is to do and en- 
dure the will of God. And when we remem- 
ber that this is the will of an infinitely wise, 
juvSt, and benevolent Being, no higher end 
can be proposed for his creatures. " The 
chief end of man,'' according to the Assem. 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 



71 



bly's Catechism, '' is to glorify God, and en- 
joy Him forever/' We glorify God when we 
do or endure His holy will. And for this 
faith prepares and furnishes us in the high- 
est and best manner. 

Faith is itself the highest principle of action. 
This is equally true in natural and spiritual 
things. Ever since the world was made, the 
history of all real progress has been a history 
of the activity and triumph of faith. Making 
all due allowance for the difference in the 
natural energy which men or nations possess, 
it will still be found that the individual, the 
nation, the age has accomplished the most, 
according as it has possessed and exercised 
most faith. This must be so in the nature of 
the case. A behef that a thing can be done, 
is a great and important element of power to 
do it. On the other hand, doubt and distrust 
as to the feasibility of what we propose to do, 
is always an element of weakness. '' A strong 



72 



PRECIOUS FAITH. 



faith makes a strong will, and a weak faith 
makes a weak will." The history of civiliza- 
tion, literature, art, science, discovery, and in- 
vention, all great forces, is a testimony to the 
power of faith. Human history is crowded 
with facts that cannot be explained, except 
on the supposition of this power as a princi- 
ple of action. Literature illustrates this in its 
own history, as well as in its records of all 
other forces. The ages which have given 
to the world a solid, and enduring, and 
edifying literature have been the ages of 
faith. And the times which have produced 
a weak, corrupting, and transient litera- 
ture have been times of scepticism and un- 
belief. 

The man, therefore, who enters on the work 
of life under the influence of true faith, is fur- 
nished with an element of power that is very 
precious. It imparts energy and vigor to the 
mind. The great truths of religion, received 



PRECIOUS FAITH. y^ 

into the consciousness and grasped by the 
affections, must enlarge, and invigorate, and 
stimulate all the forces of the soul. Other 
things being equal, we should expect a Chris- 
tian mechanic, merchant, or farmer to do his 
work better and more successfully than an 
unbeliever. He can work with a free spirit, 
and give all his energies to his task. His 
work is accepted as a part of God's great 
plan of life for him, and he feels that he may 
reasonably expect His assistance in doing it. 
His own personal relations to God being rec- 
tified by faith, he is not a prey to anxiety and 
apprehension about these relations ; he is not 
harassed and impeded by the thought that 
comes to many a busy, and what the world 
calls successful man, that after all, his life may 
be a failure. The work of life does not seem 
like drudgery to a man of faith. It is ennobled 
by being associated with God's providential 
and gracious purposes for him, so that, while 



74 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 



he is '^not slothful in business/' he is "fervent 
in spirit, serving the Lord/* 

Constituted as we are, congenial activity is 
the law of our highest dignity and joy. To an 
active and energetic spirit, labor is pleasure, 
exertion is rest. Toil that is unfelt, is no long- 
er toil ; and, though fatigue and waste are in- 
separable from these material organizations, 
still to an earnest spirit inaction is grievous, 
and work is welcome. Let a man then enter 
on the work of life conscious of right relations 
to God, free from those gloomy doubts and 
harassing fears which do at times obtrude 
even upon the most thoughtless and worldly, 
with simple faith in God, and resting his high- 
est interests in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he 
is fitted for all labor, inspired to every high 
activity, braced for every conflict, and fur- 
nished for every good word or work. 

Tell me, dear reader, would it not be an 
unspeakable blessing to you, as a working 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 



75 



man, to have your mind filled with that se- 
rene peace which comes from true faith. If 
you were sweetly conscious that your heart 
was right with God, and that His smile was 
resting on your way, and that in all your toil 
you were only serving Him, and carrying out 
His wise and good plan of life for you, would 
you not feel far better furnished for life's toil 
and endeavor than you ever have been ? Have 
there not been many times when you felt your 
need of such a support and stimulus ? Has 
there ever been a doubt in your mind that 
had much power to perplex and distress joxx, 
a doubt whether you were really attaining to 
the true end of life, and might not be obliged 
in the end to count it a lost life ? How dis- 
piriting and debilitating is such a thought ! 
No man can make the most of himself and his 
opportunities under such a paralyzing influ- 
ence. Oh, believe, behe ve, dear reader ! Have 
faith in God, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, 



76 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 



and then go forth to the work and warfare of 
life, braced and inspired by the thought, '^ All 
things are possible to him that believeth/' 

And in its relation to the other great condi 
tion of life — endurance^ faith is precious. 

He has only half learned the secret of life, 
who has learned only to do. The side of ac- 
tion is the most demonstrative and popular, 
and men naturally consider this first of all in 
making their plans and estimates of life. The 
doers are always before the public eye, and 
arrest the public attention, just as a thunder- 
storm excites more notice, and seems to be 
a thing of more power than the falling of 
the dew, which comes in the quiet, unseen 
night. With very many men power is esti- 
mated only by exertion, and nothing is consid- 
ered effective save that which is showy and 
noisy. 

But it is scarcely too much to say that life, 
a right, true, effective life, is more concerned 



PRECIOUS FAITH. yy 

with endurance than with action or demon- 
stration. It is far easier to do than to bear. 
There is much to stimulate to action — men 
see our works, and applaud them. Action is a 
thing of the broad sunshine and the crowded 
thoroughfare, where the people are, and we 
are sten of men. Endurance is a thing of re- 
tirement and lonehness ; there is little of hu- 
man observation or applause to stimulate or 
encourage it. It belongs to quiet hours and 
unseen places, and it needs a stronger princi- 
ple beneath it than action. Many a man can 
do much, who can endure little. Many a man 
can give, who cannot forgive. Many a man 
can fight bravely with a foe, who cannot rule 
his own spirit. 

When we consider the number, the variety, 
and the constancy of the occasions which call 
us to the exercise of the passive virtues in 
life, the importance of some great principle 
which lies at their foundation must be appar- 



78 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 



ent. Ambition will not answer the purpose. 
Passion may drive even a coward to a fight, 
but it cannot sustain a man in trouble, or 
under wrong, or sorrow. Napoleon was a 
man of action, and he could make all Europe 
tremble at his name. But many a humble 
Christian woman could surpass the conqueror 
of kingdoms in the dignity and grandeur of a 
patient endurance. Faith, as it is the mighti- 
est principle of action, is also the only suc- 
cessful source of endurance. 

We have had occasion before to speak of 
the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the He- 
brews, that wonderful record of the triumphs 
of faith. What is said there of the Old Testa- 
ment saints illustrates the doctrine of this 
chapter. What did they not do, what did 
they not endure by the aid of faith? Their 
history is reproduced in the history of the 
martyrs ; in the records of Christian missions ; 
in the experience of all true believers. All 



PRECIOUS FAITH, 



79 



over the world to-day there are multitudes of 
Christians in chambers of sickness, homes of 
poverty, abodes of sorrow, bearing heavy bur- 
dens with a beautiful patience ; drinking bit- 
ter cups with a cheerful resignation ; doing 
hard drudgery with a persistent fidelity ; serv- 
ing God and their generation on the rough 
frontier of the Christian life, unknown, un- 
heralded, unsung, sustained by simple faith in 
the great realities of eternal things. Like 
Moses, they ^' endure, as seeing him who is 
invisible/' 

A principle that can enable a man to meet 
and bear the varied trials of this world with 
patience and fortitude, may well be called 
precious. What can be more valuable to men 
whose home and field of labor is in this world 
of sin and sorrow ? There is a great deal in 
this life that will try us very sorely if we have 
not the refuge of faith. If you have not yet 
learned this, dear reader, you will learn it soon. 



8o PRECIOUS FAITH, 

The rough places are before you, where you 
will need an Almighty arm to support you. 
The dark hours will come when you must 
have light from an unseen world. The val- 
ley of the shadow of death is before you, and 
faith alone can light you through. The un- 
changing retributions of eternity are at hand, 
and faith alone can enable you to meet them. 
He who has received the vital truths of the 
gospel with a firm, cordial, practical convic- 
tion and affiance, is fit for the action and the 
endurance of life. Whatever befall him, he 
trusts in God, and is kept in perfect peace. 
The storms of sorroAV and disappointment 
may rage like the angry Galilee ; faith in Christ 
is able to hush them into peace. The skele- 
ton king may shake his fatal dart at the be- 
liever, but he can say, '' Oh, death, where is 
thy sting ? Oh, grave, where is thy victory ? 
Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ." Precious 



PRECIOUS FAITH. gl 

faith ! that can enable a man to do and to suf- 
fer all the will of God. 

'' Lord, we believe. Help Thou our unbe- 
lief." 



6 



PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH. 

** That the trial of your faith being much more precious 
than of gold that gerisheth, though it be tried with fire, 
might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the 
appearing of Jesus Christ." — i Peter, i. 7. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH. 

WE have considered faith in its nature and 
its value. We are now to consider 
one of the methods by which its preciousness 
may be demonstrated and increased. 

In the passage which stands at the head of 
this chapter, faith is compared to gold. And 
the peculiar value of trial and testing, as re- 
lated to this Christian grace, is set forth in 
comparison with the purification to which this 
precious metal is subjected, and by which its 
highest purit}^ and value are secured. 

The comparison of faith to gold, is striking 
and truthful. This is the most precious of all 
metals. It is the most esteemed by men. It 

(8s) 



86 PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH, 

commands all those objects of taste and luxury 
and enjoyment, which all men naturally desire. 
It delivers us from the fear of want. It pro- 
cures for us the means of intellectual culture. 
It builds up all the great institutions of com- 
merce, and art, and benevolence. It enables 
us to relieve the physical sorrows of our fel- 
low-men. It enables us to extend the influ- 
ences of our holj religion. It is the great mo- 
tive power of the world's progress. Wrongly 
estimated and pursued, it is a stupendous 
curse. 

Rightly valued, sought, and used, it is a mag- 
nificent blessing. But its power as a simile is 
always felt. As pure as gold ; as bright as 
gold ; as precious as gold, are current phrases 
in sociey, and all acknowledge their force. 
The sacred writers in very many instances use 
the simile of gold to express what is precious 
in truth, or valuable in character. So when 
the apostle uses gold to illustrate the grace of 



PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH. 8/ 

faith, he uses a metaphor truthful in itself, and 
adapted to universal appreciation. 

There are many respects in which we might 
show the beauty of this figure, but we will 
speak only of one. Faith enriches the soul, 
even as gold enriches its owner. As a poor 
man who has become affluent, can surround 
himself with all those material blessings which 
are in the gift of wealth, so faith enables the be- 
liever to appropriate all those blessings which 
make the soul rich. All that is grand and 
noble in truth ; all that is rich and satisfying 
in the promises ; all that adds dignity and 
lustre to the character ; all that brings peace 
and rest to the soul ; all that enlightens dark- 
ness, rests weariness, comforts despondency, 
and consoles the sorrowing heart, is in the gift 
of faith. ''AH things are yours,'* says the 
exulting apostle; ''AH things are yours, 
whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas, or the 
world, or life, or death, or things present, or 



88 PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH, 

things to come ; all are yours ; and ye are 
Christ's, and Christ is God's. '' This is the 
magnificent inventory of the Christian's wealth, 
and ^* it cannot be gotten for gold, neither 
shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. " 
The glorious riches of the gospel of the grace 
of God, become the inalienable inheritance of 
the humblest believer. He is an heir of God, 
a joint heir with Christ, to ^' an inheritance in- 
corruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away." 

Read the unequaled close of the eighth 
chapter of the epistle to the Romans, ending 
with those grand words ; ^* For I am persuad- 
ed that neither death nor life ; nor angels, nor 
principalities, nor powers; nor things present, 
nor things to come ; nor height, nor depth, nor 
any other creature, shall be able to separate us 
from the Love of God, which is in Christ Jesus 
our Lord. " This is the gift of faith, this is the 
assured portion of every believer, and how 



PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH. 89 

much more precious it is than gold, the eter- 
nity of its full realization and enjoyment can 
alone reveal. 

Faith, therefore, is the Christianas gold, his 
chief portion, his means of all spiritual wealth ; 
his source of comfort, peace and joy. 

Now everybody knows "that gold requires 
to be purified, both in order to test and to in- 
crease its value. The flames of the furnace, 
the cleansing and refining power of chemical 
agents, must be applied in order to reduce the 
rongh ore, purge away all impurities, and 
bring out the precious metal in its real value. 
The process may be rude ; it may involve 
much rough handling and crushing, and if the 
metal were sensitive and alive, we may sup- 
pose that it would involve great suffering for 
a time, and yet the purity and lustre and 
value of the precious metal would justify all 
the severity, and make the trial itself a prec- 
ious and valuable process. 



90 PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH, 

What is true of gold, is also true of faith. 
It needs to be tested ; both in order to prove 
its reality and to increase its tone and power. 
There is this two-fold object to be secured. 
Just as in mining, a piece of ore may be select- 
ed, which may or may not be the true metal. 
It may be impossible to decide as to the real 
character of the specimen, until the test is ap- 
plied, which will conclusively reveal the fact. 
And if it be the real ore, it will not be fit for 
use, until it is refined and purified. So that 
for both these great ends, the searching flame, 
and the dividing processes of fire and chemi- 
cals, are needful and precious. 

So, when we are in ordinary circumstances, 
we may not be able to determine whether our 
faith is genuine. Faith is confidence in God. 
Faith is reliance on Chirst. If we have many 
other things to lean on, we may be in danger 
of mistaking our confidence in them for trust 
in God — for confidence in Christ. If you 



PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH. 



91 



plant a tree, and surround it with stakes, by 
which it may be supported when the rude 
winds blow, you cannot tell whether the sap- 
ling can stand alone, so long as these props 
and stays remain. That will be revealed only 
when the stakes are taken away, and the tree 
is left to meet the blast by the strength of its 
ow^n inner life. 

If a limb has been broken, and the fractured 
parts are bound up with splints and bandages, 
the patient cannot be certain that he is healed 
until they are taken off, and tries the limb, 
and tests its intrinsic strength. So, w^hen we 
are not, as it were, forced to any real test of 
our faith, we cannot be certain that we have 
it. We may be unconsciously relying on 
other things, and until these are removed, we 
cannot be certified that there is any other and 
higher principle which will remain, and will 
still give us support and strength. 

The grand peculiarity of faith is, that it 



92 PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH, 

takes hold on the invisible world. It is not a 
reliance on sensible objects. It is said of 
Moses that, "- he endured as seeing him, who 
is invisible. '' And the apostle illustrates this 
office of faith, when he says : *^ For our light 
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh 
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
of glory. While we look not at the things 
which are seen, but at the things which are not 
seen ; for the things which are seen are tem- 
poral, but the things which are not seen are 
eternal. " Faith is concerned, we say, with in- 
visible things. It has to do with the great 
truths of revelation. It takes hold of the 
promises of God. It has no trust in any arm 
of flesh. Therefore, it must be, as it were, 
crowded up to these, in order to its lively ex- 
ercise. Outside props and reliances must be 
taken away, and then it will appear whether 
there is anything else which is better and 
more reliable, left to the soul. A child can 



PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH, 93 

never know whether it can go alone, until it 
lets go of its mother's hand, and essays to walk 
by faith in its own motive power. And the 
falls which are always involved in this process, 
though they be more or less severe, are pre- 
cious; they are valuable, as that discipline 
which develops, and tests, and strengthens its 
own muscular power, and its own faith in that 
power. 

So faith in God cannot be proved to be 
real, without a discipline that -will throw us 
upon that alone. This discipline will involve 
trial, and the trial may be severe ; but it is 
precious, 3^ea, more precious than of gold, 
which perishes. The captain of a new steam- 
er can never be secure of her sea-going quali- 
ties, so long as she lies at her pier, or sails 
over a smooth sea. The storm, which tests 
her strength and seaworthiness, is a blessing to 
the commander and the crew. 

Our Lord tells us of two builders who 



94 PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH, 

built each a house. There is every reason to 
suppose that these houses were similar in 
everything but the foundation. But for the 
storm which assailed them, this difference 
would not have been known. But when it 
came, that which was built on the sand fell, 
with a ruinous fall ; but the other, founded on 
the solid rock, stood unyielding and secure. 
Precious was the storm that assured the build- 
er that his dwelHng was safe. 

So David sang, "- Deep calleth unto deep ; at 
the noise of thy water-spouts, all thy waves 
and thy billows have gone over me. '* Does 
this sound like a wail of sadness, a dirge of 
despair ? Listen to the following strain : '' Yet 
the Lord will command his loving kindness, 
in the day-time, and in the night his song shall 
be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my 
life.*' This is the voice of faith, taught when 
trial sweeps away all other reliances, to cling 
all the more closely to the everlasting arm. 



PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH, 95 

You may think you have settled faith in 
God, in His infinite wisdom, justice, goodness, 
and truth. So long as all God's dealings are 
in accordance with your own will, and no 
counter-current assails you, you may rest in 
that belief. But how is it when things are 
not as you would have them ? how is it when 
clouds obscure your sky, and the tempest lays 
your cherished things low in the dust ? Can 
you then turn to God, and say, '' The Lord 
reigneth, let the earth rejoice *' ? Or, are you 
bewildered, and bereaved, and broken-hearted, 
and rebellious ? This is the time to trust and 
lean upon God. This is the time to test the 
genuine character of your faith. The sea is 
rough, and the tempest is high. Do you cling 
fast by the anchor of faith to the Rock of 
Ages ? Can you say, ** Though He slay me, 
yet will I trust in Him '' ? When the things 
that have been very pleasant to you are taken 
away, can you say, '' The Lord gave, and the 



q6 precious trial of faith. 

Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name 
of the Lord '' ? This is the way in which faith 
is tried, that it may be made manifest, and the 
trial of faith is far more precious than that of 
gold, even as faith is itself more precious than 
the metal — for that perisheth — but faith en- 
dureth unto everlasting life. 

We can appeal here with confidence to the 
experience of true Christians. Is there any 
one whom you know in whose piety you have 
great confidence ? Go talk with that friend on 
this point. Ask him where he gained the 
best evidence of the reality of his faith. He 
will tell you about some great trial, some 
dark day, some rough place in his journey, 
when he was forced to fall back upon God 
and grope in the gloom, feeling for the ever- 
lasting Arm. He will say, as David said, '^ I 
had fainted unless I had believed to see the 
goodness of the Lord in the land of the liv- 
ing/' Ah ! let us thank God that He minis- 



PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH. 



97 



ters to our necessities rather than to our de- 
sires in our Christian training. We shrink 
from trial. As we steer out on the sea of Hfe, 
we say, '' Lord, give us fair winds and smooth 
waters." We should say, '' Lord, give us such 
weather as Thou seest to be best for us to 
make us good and hardy sailors." But whether 
we ask it or not, the faithful and loving God 
will do it, and we shall praise Him for it for- 
ever in heaven. No matter how heavy may 
be the blow, if it only tests the genuineness 
of our faith, it is worth far more than it costs. 
No matter how fiery may be the trial, we shall 
live to say, '' It is more precious than gold !" 

But it is not only good for us to have our 
faith tested by trial to prove that it is genuine. 
The trial is equally precious as a means of 
increasing it and making it stronger. 

It is quite remarkable how weak a genuine 
faith may be. Blessed be God, that He re- 
gards quality more than quantity in his pco- 
7 



98 PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH. 

pie. A diamond is no less a gem of genuine 
value, because it is far less in size and bril- 
liancy than the Koh-i-noor. When the test 
has been applied that reveals it to be a real 
diamond, it is esteemed precious. And so 
when by the test of trial the genuine character 
of a believer's faith is proved, what though it 
is but ^'a grain of mustard seed," it is pre- 
cious as a gem in the estimation of God ; and 
humble though it be, it can be made to over- 
come the world and save the soul. 

But faith is almost always weak in its be- 
ginnings. It is the first breath of a new life 
in a soul that has been *' dead in trespasses 
and sins.'' Young life is generally feeble life. 
There is a grand principle of growth and pro- 
gress in it, but at first it is feeble. The man 
who was blind, when his eyes were first opened, 
saAV '* men as trees walking." Young faith must 
grow ; weak faith must be made stronger. A 
Christian's comfort and a Christian's useful- 



PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH. gg 

ness alike depend upon the vigor of his faith. 
Mr. Spurgeon, in one of his discourses, de- 
scribes in a very graphic and characteristic 
manner a weak believer, under the name of 
" Little Faith." He says that such a believer 
has many inconveniences and discomforts. 
While he is really sure of heaven, he very seldom 
thinks that he is. Great Faith is sure of heaven 
and knows it. Paul could say, " I know whom 
I have believed, and am persuaded that he is 
able to keep that which I have committed to 
him against that day." That is " Great Faith." 
Again, ''Little Faith, while always having grace 
enough, never thinks that he has.'' The promise, 
" My grace is sufficient for thee," is his if he 
have only a little faith, but he does not realize 
the comfort of it. And " if he be sorely tempted 
to sin he is apt to fall." These disabihties of a 
weak faith, so graphically described, are fa- 
mihar to the experience of most Christians, 
and they are sources of great discomfort and 



lOO PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH, 

hindrance to usefulness. So that anything 
that invigorates faith, even though it be trial, 
is very precious — that is, very valuable. There 
are other methods which are to be used. A 
feeble faith, like a weak limb, grows stronger 
by exercise. The blacksmith's knotted mus- 
cles and massive strength came to him by 
degrees, as day after day he wielded the pon- 
derous sledge. Express your faith ; do not 
repress it, if you want it to grow. Give it air 
and exercise; don't house it up like a hot- 
house plant. Bring it out into the sunshine 
and the air, and use it, and it will grow. Give 
it food too, or it will still be puny and stunted. 
God's word is full of truths and promises, that 
are the kindly nourishment of faith. Feed 
upon the word as David did, and you will find 
it sweeter than honey and the honey-comb. 

But, after all, the best method of strengthen- 
ing faith is b)^ trial. The man who would get 
a strong arm must lift heavy burdens, or wres- 



PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH, loi 

tie with one that is stronger than he. Jacob's 
character was never so broad and manly as 
after that long night of conflict by the brook 
Jabbok. Says Spurgeon : '' We don't grow 
strong in faith on sunshiny days. It is in 
strong weather that a man gets faith. Faith 
is not an attainment that droppeth like the 
gentle dew from heaven ; it generally comes 
in the whirlwind and the storm. Look at the 
old oaks ; how is it that they have become so 
deeply rooted in the earth ? Ask the March 
winds and they will tell you. It was not the 
April shower that did it, or the sweet May 
sunshine ; but it was the rough wind of March, 
the blustering month of old Boreas, shaking 
the tree to and fro, and causing its roots to 
bind themselves around the rocks. So it must 
be with us. We don't make good soldiers in 
the barracks at home ; they must be made 
amidst flying shots and thundering cannon. 
We cannot expect to make good sailors on a 



102 PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH. 

quiet stream ; they must be made far away on 
the deep sea, where the wild winds howl and 
the thunders roll like drums in the march of 
the God of armies. We must grapple with 
great troubles if we would have great faith." 

This is the teaching of the word of God. 
Everywhere it inculcates the doctrine. *^ Fight 
the good fight of faith " is an apostolic injunc- 
tion. It is a good fight, but it is a fight never- 
theless. No man ever grew up to a mighty 
faith who did not fight with mighty foes. 
'* The time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, 
and of Barak, of Samson, and of Jephthae, 
of David also, and Samuel, and of the proph- 
ets, who through faith subdued kingdoms ; 
wrought righteousness ; obtained promises ; 
stopped the mouths of lions ; quenched the 
violence of fire ; escaped the edge of the 
sword ; out of weakness were made strong ; 
waxed valiant in fight ; turned to flight the 
armies of the aliens." What a triumphant 



PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH. 103 

record ! It stirs the soul like the blast of a 
trumpet. These were the heroes of faith, no 
holiday soldiers, but men whose plumes were 
dancing, and whose swords were glancing in 
the very thickest of the fray. 

This truth makes the pages of life's history, 
that have been wet with tears, gleam like the 
leaves of an illuminated missal. It sheds sweet 
light on the sore disciphne of life. Some dis- 
ciples have never found what it was to have 
a strong faith till they came to very rough 
places on the way of life. Some men have 
found it only when loss and disaster came 
upon their fortunes. Some women have found 
it only when they put on the widow's weeds. 
But, however found, it is precious ; yea, more 
precious than gold, which perisheth, for '' it 
is found unto praise, and honor and glory, at 
the appearing of Jesus Christ." 

So, dear reader, do not be afraid of trials. 
Shrink not from the stern disciphne of Hfe. 



104 



PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH. 



In whatever way it pleases your Heavenly 
Father to test your faith, be assured it is 
wisely and kindly adapted, and intended to 
make it stronger, and braver, and more effi- 
cient. And as faith is the Alpha and Omega 
of the Christian life, the source of all power 
and progress, as well as of all peace and com- 
fort, whatever makes it stronger and more 
assured must be very precious to the soul. 
The faith which our Lord commended, and 
which seemed to awaken His admiration, was 
that of a humble, trusting woman, who met 
trial after trial with steady, persistent appeal, 
rising in the strength of her faith as each ob- 
stacle in her way seemed to be more formid- 
able, until she conquered at last, and won the 
boon for which she asked. " Let us even re- 
joice in tribulations, knowing that tribulation 
worketh patience, and patience experience, 
and experience hope, and hope maketh not 
ashamed.'* " Be not afraid,'' no matter how 



PRECIOUS TRIAL OF FAITH, 105 

great the trial may seem, " only believe." 
''AH things are possible to him that believ- 
eth." '' This is the victory that overcometh 
the world, even our faith/' And '' the trial 
of faith being more precious than gold, which 
perisheth, though it be tried with fire, shall 
be found unto praise, and honor and glory, at 
the appearing of Jesus Christ/* 



PRECIOUS CHRIST. 

" Unto you therefore which believe He is precious/'— 
I Peter, ii : 7. 



CHAPTER V. 

PRECIOUS CHRIST. 

IN the preceding chapters, we have con- 
sidered the nature and preciousness of 
faith, and of that discipline by which its 
genuine character is tested, and its vigor and 
value increased. 

We now come to the great object of Chris- 
tian faith, the Lord- Jesus Christ, and our pur- 
pose is to show how precious or how valuable 
He is to the believer. 

When we look at a diamond, and see its 
wonderful and beauteous lustre, we are at 
once, and instinctively, impressed with an idea 
of value. This is an abstract idea. We need 
not connect with it any personal associations, 

(log) 



no PRECIO us CHRIST, 

any memories or sentiments of a special 
character pertaining to ourselves, or to any 
person or persons who are dear to us ; yet 
we cannot fail to be at once impressed with 
the idea of wondrous value. 

In looking at the regalia of England in the 
Tower of London, or the jewels in the famous 
Green vaults in Dresden, the impression is 
made upon the mind of the most superficial 
beholder that he is looking on gems of ex- 
traordinary worth. He has never seen them 
before ; he may never see them again ; they 
cannot be connected, in any way, with his 
personal history. He has not a solitary asso- 
ciation or memory by which he is linked to 
them ; yet the mere sight of them impresses 
him profoundly with a sense of their incalcu- 
lable value. But if a precious gem is the gift 
of a living friend ; if it is ours as the pledge 
of a devoted affection, and especially, if it is 
the fruit of toils, and sacrifices, and sufferings 



PRECIO US CHRIST. 1 1 1 

endured in our behalf by some one who has 
loved us and given himself for us, oh! then, 
what new elements of unspeakable value aire 
added to the gem, and in what a profound 
and blessed sense is it precious to us ! 

All this is true of the relations which exist 
between the believer and his Lord. Christ is 
precious in Himself. He has His own in- 
trinsic and heavenly beauty ; He shines on 
the pages of history with a halo such as has 
never surrounded any other character. Simply 
as a picture, there is nothing in all the galleries 
of art which approximates to its divine beau- 
ty. No painter ever had such a conception ; 
no novelist or poet ever imagined such a 
hero. That the picture is before the world's 
admiring gaze, is the highest proof that it is 
more than a picture. We feel, we know, as 
we look at it, that it must be a reality. A 
mind that could have conceived such a char- 
acter as the Lord Jesus Christ must have been 



112 PRECIOUS CHRIST. 

more than human. The picture is without 
a blemish, the gem is without a flaw. As 
we look upon the Lord simply as a repre- 
sentation, a drawing, an image, a personage 
in history, we involuntarily exclaim — It is 
reality, it is life, it is beauty, it is grandeur, 
it is perfection ! 

The delineations of the Lord Jesus Christ 
in the Scriptures, are the most attractive and 
.fascinating which history presents to our 
view. All the images which the sacred 
writers employ are most expressive of His 
loveliness, His value. His glory. We cannot 
form an accurate or exhaustive idea of Him 
by looking at one of these inspired represen- 
tations. We must group them into a magni- 
ficent whole. The King, crowned into many 
crowns, is Jesus ; but not the full develop- 
ment of the glory of Jesus. The Shekinah 
of the holy city is Jesus ; but this, however 
splendid, does not constitute our Lord, as He 



PRECIOUS CHRIST. 



113 



appears in His glory. In forming a concep- 
tion of Jesus, let us bring together into one 
person, or individual, all the detached repre- 
sentations given of Him in the Scriptures — 
the Son of God, the King of kings, the Sov- 
ereign crowned with many crowns, the Judge 
on the great white throne, the Godhead com^ 
ing with clouds — and in all these we have 
images of grandeur, and sublimity, and glory 
that are awful and overwhelming. Combine 
with these the images of the Shepherd lead- 
ing His flock in green pastures and by still 
waters ; the sympathizing Friend, weeping 
with the afflicted at a brother's tomb, or 
offering His bosom as a pillow for a loved 
disciple's head ; the gentle and considerate 
One, who will not break the bruised reed, nor 
quench the smoking flax ; the Fountain in the 
desert ; the shadow of a great rock in a weary 
land ; the Vine, of which His people are the 
branches ; the weeping, pitying Man on 



114 PRECIOUS CHRIST. 

Olivet ; the Healer of disease and the Com- 
forter of sorrow; the home-friend and heart- 
friend of the lowly and the poor, and we 
have traits of inexpressible beauty, and in- 
imitable tenderness, and marvelous fascina- 
tion, which, blended with those of grandeur 
and sublimity, make up the most complete, 
the most attractive, the most precious por- 
traiture which human eyes have ever seen or 
human affection ever worshiped. Precious! 
Ah, yes ! Apart from every personal associa- 
tion, independent of every memory of what 
this Saviour is and does, and is yet to be, and 
to do for us, m His own intrinsic, absolute, 
independent, eternal worth, the Lord Jesus 
Christ is *' chiefest among ten thousand, the 
one altogether lovely!'' 

But when we add to His intrinsic and ab- . 
solute preciousness, the great fact that this 
wonderful, this glorious being is the Saviour 
of the humblest soul that believes in Him • 



PRECIOUS CHRIST, 



115 



that there is a close and tender personal tie 
between them, so that the Christian can say, 
as he beholds this perfect, this beauteous, this 
lovely, this heavenly being : " My beloved is 
mine and I am His," what an element of 
value is added to His preciousness. Christ 
would seem to be precious, did we consider 
Him only in His relations to the heavenly 
world — to the Father and to the holy angels. 
There is an intrinsic value that attaches to 
Him, growing out of what He is in Himself. 
But when the believer thinks of his Lord, it 
is not so much in this abstract and absolute 
relation. No ! As he sees all the beauty and 
glory of this Divine Saviour, as he beholds 
every separate and individual attribute blend- 
ed in one harmonious and magnificent whole, 
and remembers that this is his own dear Lord, 
who loved him and gave Himself for him, his 
views of the preciousness of Christ reach to 
the highest point of grateful and adoring ap- 



1 1 6 PRE CIO US CHRIST. 

preciation, as he exclaims : ^^This is my beloved, 
and this is my friend f 

For this personal relation to the Lord Jesus 
Christ, into which faith introduces the be- 
liever, implies a title to everything that can 
be a real good to the soul. This is the mean- 
ing of the apostle's words, when He exclaims : 
*^All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apol- 
los, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, 
or things present, or things to come ; all are 
yours ; and ye are Christ's, and Christ is 
God's." 

What a golden chain it is that thus links 
the believer to all the riches of God's uni- 
verse. Faith makes the Christian a child of 
God ; but that is not all. If he is a child, 
then he is an heir ; but that is not all, he is 
an '' heir of God," and '' a joint heir with 
Christ." Everything that we need, from a 
crumb of bread to a crown of glory, is secured 
to us, if Christ be ours. Everything that the 



PRECIOUS CHRIST, 



117 



Omnipotent Father would bestow on the only- 
begotten and well-beloved Son, in which His 
redeemed people can share, is equally theirs, 
for they are Christ's. 

We see, therefore, dear readers, that '* pre- 
cious faith *' unites every believer to a pre- 
cious Christ, and gives him a personal in- 
terest in this Saviour. " Unto yotc, therefore, 
which believe,'' not only in Himself, not only 
to God and to angels, but ^* unto you he is pre- 
cious." There are two senses in which this 
is true : Christ is precious to the believer in 
the sense of being valuable to him, and in the 
sense of being dear to him ; a thing may be 
valuable to us, because it is usefnl, but it may 
not be a thing that we love. A very little 
medicine may be immeasurably valuable to 
a sick man, because it may save his life , but 
it is bitter still, and though he takes it readily, 
and values its curative properties, he does 
not love it, and will not take it except under 



1 1 8 PRECIO US CHRIST. 

the pressure of stern necessity. So a thing 
may be dear to us when it has no real intrinsic 
value. There are little trifles in every dwell- 
ing, mementoes of dear ones who are gone 
from us, that are inexpressibly dear and pre- 
cious to us — things that a stranger would 
fling away, but which no gold could purchase 
from us. But Christ is precious to the be- 
liever in every sense. He is valuable ; yea, 
invaluable; He is '^ the way, the truth and 
the life '* for His people. He is their Re- 
deemer from sin, from death, and from hell. 
He is their Mediator with God the Father. 
He is their Advocate before the throne. He is 
their Prince and Defender. He is their Shep- 
herd and their guide. He is their Sympa- 
thizer in every sorrow, and their Comforter 
in all distress. He delivers them from a 
guilty conscience. He justifies them before 
the law of God. He succors them in every 
temptation. He makes them conquerors, and 



PRECIOUS CHRIST. 



119 



more than conquerors, over death and the 
grave. So He is precious to them ; yea, 
precious to them all. The high and the low, 
the rich and the poor, the bond and the free, 
be they only believers, find their all for this 
v^orld and the next in this precious Christ. 

And He is dear to all believers. True faith 
*^ worketh by love." David is the represen- 
tative of all God's saints, and how he speaks 
of the precious Lord ! How he uses the lan- 
guage of deep affection : " Whom have I in 
heaven but thee ; and there is none upon the 
earth that I desire besides thee !" '' My lips 
shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee, 
and my soul which thou hast redeemed.** 
** I love the Lord, because he hath heard my 
voice and my supphcation.*' '' O Lord of 
hosts ! blessed is the man that trusteth in 
thee." ''I will sing of the mercies of the 
Lord forever and even" ^' Bless the Lord, 
O my soul, and all that is within me ; bless 



120 PRECIOUS CHRIST. - 

his holy name/' This is the language of 
ardent affection, of grateful, adoring love. It 
is repeated in the Apostolic writings. The 
Christian heart that beheld Jesus through the 
mists of prophecy and vision, and loved Him 
as its Saviour and Friend, beat all the more 
fervently in the bosoms of the godly men to 
whom the coming and work of Christ was an 
accomplished fact. And so the penitent yet 
earnest Peter could say, as he looked on his 
risen Lord with eyes that sparkled with joy 
at his resurrection, while they wept tears of 
repentance, that he could ever have denied 
Him, " Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou 
knowest that I love thee." And so Paul, that 
disciple ^* born out of due time,'' could say, 
*^ Whom not having seen w^e love ; in whom, 
though now we see him not, yet believ- 
ing, we rejoice with joy that is unspeakable 
and full of glory." And so John could 
say, he who leaned on the Lord's breast at 



PRECIOUS CHRIST. 121 

the supper, *' We love him, because he first 
loved us." 

And what is true of Apostolic and Old Tes- 
tament times, has been true of all the Chris- 
tian centuries. To the believers of all ages, 
climes, and nations, Christ has been precious, 
precious in the sense of dear. Their love for 
Him sustained the martyrs as they joyfully 
counted not their lives dear for His sake. 
The hymns and holy songs which live longest, 
and have the deepest place in the hearts of 
God's people, are those which embody the 
intense affection of the believer for his Lord. 
How many of God's people have sung : 

" How sweet the name of Jesus sounds/* 
or, 

" Dearest of all the names above/' . 
or, 

" Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear/' 
or, 

" Jesus ! I love thy charming name/' 
or, 

" Rock of Ages ! cleft for me/* 



122 PRECIOUS CHRIST, 

making loving melody in their hearts unto 
their Lord. There is ^^ a great multitude, 
which no man can number/' even now upon 
the earth, to whom Christ is unspeakably 
precious, who love Him with all their hearts. 
It is not uncommon to hear it said, that the 
piety of the Church in our day is far below 
that of the elder day ; that if it were tested 
by fire and sword, it could not stand the test. 
I am not so sure of that. I believe there are 
some even now, who love Jesus Christ with 
a love that would not shrink, if it were need- 
ful, before the rack or the stake, I believe 
that my sainted mother was such a Christian. 
I believe that Christ was dearer to her than 
husband, or children, or home, or anything 
below the sun. And through long years of 
widowhood, and through a forty years* con- 
flict with great physical infirmities and heart 
bereavements, this affection for her Lord sus- 
tained her, and made her a bright, and cheer- 



PRECIOUS CHRIST. 



123 



ful, and happy, and exalted Christian. And 
I believe that there are many, like her, who 
do love Jesus, and find His name sweet in 
their ears, and to whom He is precious be- 
yond all beside. 

*' Yes, unto you, therefore, which believe, 
He is precious." And there are times when 
you feel that He is so, with peculiar force. 
He is precious when you feel the burden of 
sin. When, now and then, you get a glimpse 
of your own heart, and are startled and dis- 
tressed at the sight ; when you feel that you 
are a poor, unworthy sinner, and are afraid 
of the wrath of God ; when conscience is 
roused, and your heart is like a troubled sea, 
— then the thought of Him, whose precious 
blood cleanseth from all sin, and whose per- 
fect righteousness spread over you, covers, 
like a spotless robe, all your stains, is full of 
comfort and of hope. I cannot see how any 
man, who feels any proper sense of his own 



124 



PRECIOUS CHRIST. 



sinfulness, can dispense with the doctrine of 
the atonement. How can a sinner be for- 
given, in harmony with eternal justice, if 
there be no adequate satisfaction rendered to 
the law which he has broken. God is a Sov- 
ereign as well as a Father, and the father's 
love cannot dishonor the sovereign's claims. 
In the atonement we see provision made at 
once for God's rights and man's needs ; for 
the vindication of heaven, and the salvation 
of earth. ^' Being justified by faith, we have 
peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." This is a precious view of Christ ; 
freely ^^ bearing our sins in his own body on 
the tree ;" '' redeeming us from the curse of 
the law, by being made a curse for us ;" " suf- 
fering for sin, the just for the unjust, that he 
might bring us to God." This hushes the 
clamor of a guilty conscience, and says to the 
troubled spirit, *' Peace, be still !" No mat- 
ter how long, how willfully, how heinously we 



PRECIOUS CHRIST. I25 

may have sinned, if we believe in the aton- 
ing, interceding Christ, it is all forgiven, all 
blotted out, all forever washed away. No 
man need fear to stand before a holy God, 
whose faith takes even a trembling hold 
of the Cross of Christ. Unto the believer, 
suffering under a sense of sin, Christ is 
precious. 

And so, in all the vicissitudes and conflicts 
of the spiritual hfe,, Christ is precious as the 
strength and Deliverer of His people. So 
the Apostle felt, as in such graphic terms he 
described the conflict between his old and his 
new nature, in the close of the seventh chap- 
ter of the Epistle to the Romans. When 
almost in despair under the pressure of the 
strife between the good that he would, and 
the evil that he would not, he exclaimed, 
" Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall de- 
liver me from the body of this death?" his 
faith, reposing on the Saviour, breaks out in 



126 PRECIOUS CHRIST, 

joyful assurance, *^I thank God, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord/' 

And in times of affliction Christ is precious 
to the believer. There is no aspect in which 
He is presented to our faith, which is more 
attractive than that in which he appears 
as the sympathizing Friend and Comforter of 
His afflicted people. Many a believer has 
learned his best lessons of his Lord under the 
teachings of sorrow. And they are precious 
lessons. In all our affliction, He is afflicted. 
" We have not a High Priest who cannot be 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, 
but was in all points tempted like as we are, 
yet without sin.'' How comforting this truth 
is, let His tried people testify. They who have 
lain on beds of sickness through days of pain 
and nights of wakefulness, have found a pity- 
ing Jesus near them to soothe their anguish, 
and make the pain of the body the healing of 
the soul. They who have met stunning and 



PRECIOUS CHRIST. 



127 



unexpected blows of reverse or calamity, and 
have met them with fortitude and patience, 
have done so by the help of Jesus, who put 
underneath them the everlasting Arm and 
held them up, so that they could say, with 
David, " I had fainted, unless I had beheved 
to see the goodness of the Lord in the land 
of the living/' They who have been called 
to drink of the bitter cup of bereavement, 
from whom lover and friend have been put far 
away, have found a sympathizing Saviour so 
precious to them, that they have been able 
to say, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath 
taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord/' 
Aged saints, treading with feeble step the 
short remnant of life's journey, cheered by 
the presence of their Lord, have been enabled 
to say, '' Yea, though I walk through the val- 
ley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, 
for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff, 
they comfort me/' And time would fail me 



128 PRECIOUS CHRIST, 

to tell of the testimonies to the preciousness 
of Christ that have come from the lips of dy- 
ing believers. His image has been the last to 
fade from the glazing eye ; His name has been 
the last to linger on the trembling tongue. 

An old Christian once lay on his dying bed, 
and the dear daughter, who hung over him 
with trembling solicitude, could see no trace 
of consciousness, hear no word of recognition 
from her dying father. Suddenly there came 
from the pale lips 'the faint articulation, 
'' Bring r '^ What shall I bring, father?" 
said the daughter, thinking that it was the 
expression of some need which she could sup- 
ply. Again, and with more force, came the 
word, ''Bring !'' from the dying man. -^ Dear 
father ! tell me, what shall I bring ?'' was the 
girFs passionate exclamation, in agony to know 
what she might yet do for her beloved father. 
Then a hght beamed from the dull eye, and a 
smile played over the pale face, and the words 



PRECIOUS CHRIST. 



129 



came audible and clear from the lips of the 
departing saint : 

" Bring forth the royal diadem, 
And crown Him Lord of all T' 

''Unto you, therefore, which believe He is 
precious/' Dear reader, is this Saviour pre- 
cious to you ? 



PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST. 

" With the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb with- 
out blemish and without spot." — i Peter, 1:19. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST. 

THERE is scarcely any substance which 
is at the same time so sacred and so 
mysterious as blood. If we are asked for 
a definition of it, it is easy to say that it is a 
red liquid, which circulates in the cavities of 
the heart, the arteries, veins, and capillary 
vessels of the human body. But when we 
have said this, we have by no means explained 
what it is, nor have we given any clue to that 
pecuhar and universal sensibility which even 
the sight of it is apt to excite. There is cer- 
tainly no fluid in the body which has such a 
complex composition, and there is no' sub- 
stance which seems to have such an intimate 

(133) • 



134 PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST. 

and essential relation to human existence. In 
fact, the Bible tells us in most impressive 
terms, that the blood is the life. And we know- 
that, while limb after limb may be severed 
from the body without necessarily destroying 
the principle of life, yet the most vigorous 
frame must succumb to the loss of this fluid. 
And unless its waste be checked, death is un- 
avoidable. Blood seems to be the subtle, mys> 
terious link between matter and spirit. It is 
guarded by the most solemn sanctions, both 
of divine and human law. The highest pen- 
alty under the divine code, is attached to its 
unlawful shedding ; and that human legisla- 
tion is neither wise nor good which departs, 
in this respect, from the wholesome severity 
of the divine enactments. There is deeply 
seated in the human mind a sense of the sa- 
credness of blood. The sight of it, especially 
when shed by violence, always produces a 
sensation of pain, and sends a shudder to the 



PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST. 



135 



heart. Under the Jewish law, which, in many 
respects, was a model of wise legislation, even 
the blood of animals was held sacred. It 
could never be used for food. And when 
shed in needful provision for the w^ants of 
men, it was regarded as an offering to God. 
It was everywhere recognized throughout the 
Mosaic law, as the symbol of atonement. And 
in the rehgious rites of all nations, it is con- 
sidered as the highest and most sacred of all 
the forms of sacrifice. 

To a true Christian, there is, perhaps, no 
allusion which can have so much meaning, so 
much pathos, so much power, as that con- 
tained in the words, ''the precious blood of 
Christ^ His natural sensibiUties, His relig- 
ious emotions, and His dearest hopes, com- 
bine to give most impressive significance to 
them. We have considered, in the preceding 
chapters, some of those things which St. Peter 
denominates precious. And we sympathize 



136 PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, 

devoutly in his application of this significant 
term to faith, and its trials, and to our blessed 
Lord. But none of these allusions come so 
closely and tenderly to the Christian heart as 
this, "the precious blood of Christ/' In the 
most hallowed seasons of devout meditation ; 
when we think of the foundation of our per- 
sonal hopes and comforts; at the Lord's ta- 
ble, that scene where, if ever on earth we get 
glimpses and foretastes of heaven, there are 
no words which recur so instinctively and 
with such intense and touching significance to 
our memories. I have heard of dying saints 
who seemed to murmur something almost in- 
audibly as they were going home ; and when 
some anxious and loving ear was held to their 
lips, it was found that this was the word with 
which they were going into glory, " the pre- 
cious blood of Christ r 

We can call blood " precious,'' which is the 
blood of any whose character is lovely, and 



PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST. 



137 



whose fate is unusually tragic. A great deal 
of such precious blood has been shed in our 
world by the hand of tyranny, or bigotry, or 
persecution. The history of England, for in- 
stance, is full of such instances. That gloomy 
pile, which has figured so grimly in her his- 
tory for a thousand years, known as the 
^* Tower of London," has witnessed the shed- 
ding of the blood of noble men and fair wo- 
men, whose names are now revered as those 
of heroes and martyrs. The martyrology of 
the Christian Church is rich in such annals. 
Patriotism also has had her sacrifices of pre- 
cious blood. The fields of our own land have 
been enriched with myriad drops of such 
blood. But where, among the heroes and 
martyrs of the world, can be found one like 
our Lord Jesus Christ? Where can be found 
one so pure, so lovely, yet so grand and he- 
roic ; so stainless in holiness ; of such a celes- 
tial temper ; so divinely beautiful and good, 



1 3 8 PRE CIO us BLOOD OF CHRIST. 

yet so fully in sympathy with all that was 
human ? When we think of our Lord merely 
as a man ; when we consider Him only as a 
pure and benevolent being, who was cruelly 
put to death in His early manhood by a vin- 
dictive priesthood, without a stain on His 
character or a blot on His name, the catas- 
trophe of His death excites our profoundest 
sympathy. When we reflect that, during His 
short life, He proved Himself to be the best 
friend of His race, tiie kindest, gentlest, most 
self-denying and true of all men ; going about 
doing good; speaking so that ^^ the common 
people heard Him gladly ]' illustrating, in 
His life and death, the heavenly principle, 
'' It is more blessed to give than to receive \' 
surely, we must consider His blood, so cruelly 
shed, as '' precious " indeed. The character 
alone of Him who died, must shed its conse- 
crating influence on His death, and give to 
every drop of His blood a sacred aroma. 



PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST. 13Q 

Even apart from any personal relations to 
the event, we could not be indifferent to it as 
a history, an instance of innocent and heroic 
suffering, of sublime and beautiful self-sacri- 
fice. We should be false to every ingenuous 
emotion, recreant to every true and generous 
sensibility, did we not esteem the blood which 
was shed on Calvary, "precious.'' We should 
not think it too much, to single this out from 
all the pure, heroic blood that was ever shed 
on earth, and say, "This is Uhe precious 
blood of Christ!' " 

But the real truth far exceeds this meagre 
statement. No blood was ever shed, in which 
we are so deeply, personally interested. Very 
precious blood has been shed for us by others. 
Martyrs have died to send down to us a pure 
faith and an open Bible. Heroes have died 
to give us a free country and an independent 
nation. Our fair land has been drenched in 
blood that we may well call precious, and 



140 PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST. 

which will long be hallowed in the grateful 
memory of a great people. But what are the 
sufferings of martyrs, or the deeds of heroes 
in the cause of truth or patriotism, compared 
with what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for 
us ? It is '' the old, old story,*' this story of 
the Cross, but we do not know it fully yet. 
It is the story of salvation, but salvation is a 
word which eternity alone can fully define. 
It is the story of redemption, but who can 
fathom the meaning of that mighty word ? 
Who can comprehend what is implied in the 
deliverance of even one immortal soul from 
sin and death ; from remorse and anguish, un- 
mitigated and eternal ? Ah, dear readers, we 
are only in the alphabet of our Christian ex- 
perience ! We ^^ see, as through a glass, 
darkly." *' We know in part, and we under- 
stand but in part ;" but we know this, that 
whatever this great salvation is ; whatever 
be the sublime and eternal significance of 



PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, 141 

such words as peace, pardon, rest, joy, glory, 
honor, immortality, heaven, we owe all our 
hopes of these to ^^ the precious blood of Christ! " 
In other words, the atoning work of the 
Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation of all our 
hope of salvation: ** For ye were redeemed, 
not Avith corruptible things, as silver and gold, 
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a 
lamb without blemish and without spot." No 
other blood but this could atone for sin. The 
spotless lamb bleeding on the Jewish altar, 
was but a type of that '' Lamb of God who 
taketh away the sin of the world." It is not 
possible for the blood of bulls and goats to 
take away sin. '' But the blood of Jesus 
Christ his son cleanseth from all sin." It is 
precious, because it has atoning virtue and 
purifying power. Its shedding vindicates eter- 
nal justice, satisfies infinite law, and enables 
God to be ''just, and the justifier of Him that 
believeth in Jesus." The blessed sacrament 



142 



PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST. 



of the Lord's Supper owes all its significance 
to this precious blood. If it means anything 
at all, it means that Jesus Christ died on the 
Cross to save us from the guilt, power, and 
penalty of sin. There are some dogmatic 
statements of Christian doctrine, embodied 
in creeds and confessions, about w^hich be- 
lievers hesitate and even honestly differ. But 
there is no hesitation among all evangelical 
Christians here. There is no other teaching 
that can satisfactorily explain the meaning of 
the Lord's table. All over it is written in 
characters of light, the precious blood of 
Christ ; Christian believers there go back in- 
stinctively to the scenes of Calvary, and sit in 
grateful, adoring, loving wonder, where the 
ground is stained with the dying Redeemer's 
blood, and say, ^' This is precious blood." 

And why precious ? Why more precious 
than the blood of Abel, or Stephen, or Paul, 
or John Rogers, or Margaret Wilson, or any 



PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, 143 

Other heroic martyr, who died for God and 
His truth ? Why do redeemed sinners say so 
much about '' the precious blood of Christ T 
Why are these words so continually uttered 
at the communion-table, on the dying bed, at 
the gate of glory ? We have seen that it was 
the blood of a pure and innocent and heroic 
sufferer, and that it was shed for us. But this 
is not all. This was the blood of a divine Sa- 
viour. This suffering, bleeding Christ, was 
more than man. He was the equal of the 
Almighty God! "Awake, O sword, against 
my shepherd, and against the man that is my 
fellow !*' This was more than man, who died 
for man. He who hung on the Cross as man, 
sat on the throne as God. The hand that was 
pierced with the nails, grasped the sceptre of 
universal empire. The brow which bled un- 
der the crown of thorns, was radiant with a 
crown of glory ! The blood which was shed 
for us, came from the veins of the God-man 



144 PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, 

Christ Jesus. This is the reason why St. 
Peter calls it " precious ;*' this is the reason 
why it speaks better things than the blood of 
Abel. If our Christ, like Abel, were only a 
man, why should His blood speak better 
things ? AbeFs blood spake, but its cry was 
Vengeance ! Christ's blood speaks, but its 
cry is, Mercy! 

It is, therefore, only when we see that Jesus 
is a divine Saviour, that he came from heaven 
and glory, to earth and shame, to atone for 
our sin by his perfect obedience, and recon- 
cile us to God through his death, that we 
can at all understand the real significance 
of the familiar phrase, ** the precious blood of 
Christy No blood like this was ever shed. 
The shedding of no blood ever accomplished 
what this has accomplished. It has satisfied 
an infinite law. It has propitiated an outraged 
justice. It has purchased for guilty men par- 
don, peace, and joy. It has purchased for the 



PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST. j.f 

weeping penitent the smile of God and the 
bhss of heaven. There is not a blessing which 
we need or can enjoy, from a crumb of bread 
to a crown of glory, which we do not owe to 
it. Do we want peace of conscience, assur 
ance of pardon, hope of eternal life ? These 
are the fruits of the shedding of "the pre- 
cious blood of Christ." Do we need strength 
to live a right life, to resist temptation, to 
fight the good fight, and endure unto the 
end ? He who shed His precious blood for 
us will not refuse to give us. these. Do we 
need a talisman, with which we can take away 
the sting of death and rob the grave of its 
gloom? When you, dear reader, lie down 
on your dying bed and feel the chill of the 
last enemy's approach, put your whole trust 
in the precious blood of Christ, and you will 
be a conqueror, and more than conqueror, in 
that trying hour. And when your spirit goes 
up from its tabernacle of clay, and knocks at 



lo 



146 PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, 

the gates of Paradise, and you are asked for 
the entrance- word, just whisper to the shin- 
ing angel who keeps the gate, '' The precious 
blood of Christ,'' and the portal of pearl will 
be flung wide open for you, and you will be 
free to tread the golden street up to the 
throne, whereon sits forever ^' the Lamb that 
was slain.'' Then your salvation will be com- 
plete ; then your redemption will be consum- 
mated. And as ages on ages roll away, and 
ages on ages still succeed, and you still rise 
from one degree of saintly blessedness to an- 
other ; if one of the angels who desire to look 
into these things, ever asks you what is the 
secret of your bliss, and what is the chorus 
of your song, and what is the crown of your 
rejoicing, he will ask, and you can give no 
better answer than these blessed words : '^ The 

PRECIOUS BLOOD OF ChRIST !" 



PRECIOUS CORNER-STONE. 

*' Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, pre- 
cious : and he that believeth on him shall not be con- 
founded. — I Peter, ii : 6. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PRECIOUS CORNER-STONE. 

WE are to consider in this chapter an- 
other of the precious things which St. 
Peter groups together in his Epistles. I need 
not say that the allusion here is to the Lord 
Jesus Christ. The verse at the head of the 
chapter is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah. 
In the 28th chapter of this prophecy, the i6th 
verse, we read : '* Therefore thus saith the 
Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a founda- 
tion a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner- 
stone, a sure foundation ; he that beheveth 
shall not make haste." Thus the prophet 
and the apostle, both speaking by inspiration, 
represent the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour 

(149) 



1 50 PRECIO US CORNER - STONE. 

of mankind, under this truthful and expressive 
image. The figure is an architectural one. 
It is drawn from a building, and from the 
familiar practice of builders. Everybody 
knows that when an edifice of any size and 
importance is to be reared, the laying of the 
corner-stone is attended with special and im- 
pressive ceremonies and services. It is con- 
sidered as representing the entire foundation 
of the building, and it is, of course, a most 
important part of the edifice. The strength, 
symmetr}^ and durability of the building de- 
pend upon it, and every wise and experienced 
architect looks with the most scrupulous care 
after the material of which his corner-stone is 
made, and sees that it is well laid, and is " true 
and trusty." For many a well planned and 
stately building has failed to stand and accom- 
plish its object, for want of a proper corner- 
stone, for lack of a good foundation. 

If this is true of earthly buildingS; how 



PRECIO US CORNER - STONE, 1 5 i 

much more true is it of that which we build 
for eternity. The foundation on which we 
rest our everlasting hopes ought to be sure. 
All men are builders— builders not only for 
time, but, consciously or unconsciously, build- 
ers for eternity. I do not propose to take any 
time to show on what unreliable foundations 
many men, and some schools and churches, 
are resting their immortal hopes. Suffice it 
to say, that there are those who are Hke that 
unwise builder of whom our Lord spake, who 
built his house upon the sand. And the end 
will be the same. When the day of storm 
and trial comes, the house will fall, and great 
will be the fall of it. 

But whatever may be the name or nature 
of those foundations on which mistaken men 
and false religious sects may be resting their 
hopes or their systems, the teachings of the 
Bible are clear and explicit. '' Other founda- 
tion can no man lay than that is laid, which is 



152 P^^ CIO us CORNER - ST0N£, 

Jesus Christ." '^Behold, I lay in Zion for a 
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious 
corner-stone, a sure foundation ; he that be- 
lieveth shall not make haste ;" or, as St. Peter 
has it, '' he that believeth shall not be confound- 
ed." Here we are distinctly taught that Jesus 
Christ, and He alone, is the only reliance of 
sinful man for salvation ; that on His great 
redeeming work all our hopes must rest ; 
that He has been set apart by God the Father 
for this special work ; that He possesses all 
the essential requisites for it, and that the 
man who builds on Christ, the stone, the tried 
stone, the precious corner-stone, shall never 
be disappointed in his trust. His building 
shall stand. 

Jesus Christ, then, is the divinely laid cor- 
ner-stone on which the believer's hopes must 
ever rest. The foundation of pardon, justifi- 
cation, and full salvation for every believing 
soul is laid in Him. And the precise aspect 



PRECIOUS CORNER-STONE, 



IS3 



of His work for man, which is represented in 
the figure used by St. Peter, and called a 
''precious corner-stone," is that which is 
called the atonement. This atonement con- 
sisted in Christ's perfect obedience to the law 
of God in His life, and His sufferings, and 
death on the cross, by which the law was 
satisfied, God's holiness and justice fully vin- 
dicated, and the way opened for the gracious 
forgiveness of sinful man, his deliverance from 
the guilt and condemnation of sin, and his 
complete and eternal restoration to the favor 
of God. And this entire doctrine, taught as 
it is in numberless and harmonious passages 
in the Old Testament and the New, declared 
by patriarch, psalmist, prophet, and apostle ; 
and declared clearly and distinctively by our 
Lord Himself, is all comprehended in this one 
declaration, '' For He hath made Him to be 
sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might 
be made the righteousness of God in Him." 



1 5 4 PRE CIO us CORNER - STONE. ' 

2 Cor. 5:21. It is, therefore, the doctrine of 
the atonement which is the corner-stone, the 
sure foundation of the believer's hope. 

The doctrine of the atonement grows di- 
rectly out of these two things : the infinite 
holiness of God the Sovereign, and the willful 
sin of man the subject. These two factors are 
both acknowledged by all candid thinkers. 
Everybody admits the perfect holiness of 
God, and the willful guilt of man. God is a 
ruler. Man is a subject. God is such a ruler 
that His law is the harmony, order, peace, 
and joy of the universe. God is such a ruler, 
that to dishonor His law, is not only an infi- 
nite insult to Him, but an infinite injury and 
wrong to all His creatures. We know that 
even in this lower and imperfect state, the 
most gigantic evils which afflict our times, 
grow out of the very inadequate manner in 
which law — human law — is vindicated and 
maintained. If in all our land the just penalty 



' PRECIO US CORNER - STONE, j 5 5 

of broken law was inflicted promptly and un- 
sparingly on every offender; if public justice 
always triumphed, and no offender — be he 
high or low — could by any means escape the 
just penalty of his misdeeds, what an infinite 
benediction this would be to society ! How 
would life, liberty, property, reputation be 
enhanced in security and value ! How would ' 
crime be diminished, virtue increased, and 
the sum of pubhc happiness and general pros- 
perity largely augmented ! 

But in a government like that of God, em- 
bracing all creation, extending over all time, 
and comprehending every interest of truth, 
justice, and happiness for myriads of crea- 
tures, it is of infinite importance that law 
should be upheld in its integrity, and the 
authority of the Sovereign should be fully 
and forever maintained. 

Then we have this great problem, '' How 
shall man be just with God ?" Or, in other 



1 56 -P RECTO US CORNER - STONE, 

words, How can man be saved from the guilt 
and condemnation of law in consistency with 
the justice of God, the integrity of the divine 
government, and the safety of the moral uni- 
verse ? So stupendous a problem as this was 
never presented save in this single instance. 
So prodigious a crisis as this never occurred 
but in the case of human apostasy. So dire 
an exigency never asked for provision, except 
once in the history of creation and of law. It 
is very easy for a superficial thinker to ask, 
Why could not God forgive sin in man, as a 
human father forgives his erring child, with- 
out demanding the bloody tribute which the 
doctrine of the atonement implies. The an- 
swer is, The analogy is not perfect. It is not 
the Fatherhood of God that is concerned in 
this case, so much as it is the Sovereignhood 
of God. A father may forgive a disobedient 
child in the private relations of the domestic 
circle, though even there he cannot do it, 



PRECIOUS CORNER-STONE. • 



157 



either justly or wisely, at the expense of the 
parental authority over the household. Bui 
a judge, a ruler, cannot forgive an offence 
against the law which he is sworn to uphold, 
and on which the well-being of the whole 
community is dependent, without some ade- 
quate provision for the vindication of that 
law. And if an earthly sovereign is hedged 
in by these essential limitations, where the in- 
terests of a petty community only are involved 
on a comparatively limited and insignificant 
scale, must not the Supreme Ruler feel their 
force whose kingdom embraces all worlds, 
and is related to the well being of the uni- 
verse itself? God Himself is bound by the 
nature of things. There are obligations which 
belong not only to earthly rulers, but even to 
the King of kings ! The Judge of all the 
earth must do right. And with these two in- 
exorable factors still before us, the infinite 
hohness and justice of the Sovereign, and the 



1 5 8 PRE CIO us CORNER - STONE. 

willful guilt of the subject ; the awful problem 
still remains, and angels cannot solve it : How 
shall man be just with God ? 

But the problem, awful as it is, has been 
solved. '' Behold,'' saith the Lord God, '' I 
lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried 
stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foun- 
dation ; he that believeth shall not make 
haste/' That which men or angels could not 
have devised, has been devised by God Him- 
self. '' Behold, / lay in Zion a stone." The 
grand expedient of the atonement came from 
the mind of God Himself. And this fact 
effectually shuts the mouths of those object- 
ors who say, that this doctrine represents God 
as a stern and implacable despot, who must 
be appeased with blood before He is willing 
to pardon and save His own creatures. Such 
critics forget that the atonement itself at once 
glorifies the love and magnifies the justice of 
God. They represent the wrath of God as 



PRECIO US CORNER - STONE. 1 59 

like the emotion of rage or anger in man, 
often an utterly wrong emotion, and do not 
see that it is the sublime aversion of His 
lofty and pure nature to all sin, which excites 
this wrath. The anger of God against sin, is 
as grand and glorious a feeling, as much 
worthy of the admiration of every pure and 
noble soul, as any of the emotions which be- 
long to God's infinite heart. It exists side by 
side with an infinite compassion ; a divine 
tenderness for the sinner; a love that is ready 
to make any sacrifice, save that of truth and 
justice, for his salvation. ^' At the very in- 
stant when the immaculate holiness of God is 
burning wath intensity, and reacting by an 
organic recoil against sin, the infinite pity of 
God is yearning with a fathomless desire to 
save the transgressor from the effects of this 
very displeasure. The emotion of anger 
against sin is constitutional to the Deity, and 
is irrepressible at the sight of sin. But this 



1 60 PRECIO US CORl^ER - STONE. 

is entirely compatible with the existence and 
exercise of another and opposite feeling at 
the very same m.oment, in reference, not, in- 
deed, to the sin, but to the soul of the sinner. 
Mercy and truth meet together, righteousness 
and peace kiss each other in the Divine Es- 
sence, and it is a mutilated and meagre con- 
ception of the Godhead that can grasp but 
one of these opposites at once.'* No ! ^* God 
is love," and '' God is angry with the wicked 
every day/' '' God is love,'' and '^ it is a fear- 
ful thing to fall into the hands of the living 
God." '' God is love," yet *' the soul that 
sinneth, it shall die !" These are not para- 
doxes. These are not contradictions. These 
are but representations of the complex nature 
of God. One class of truths represents his 
feelings towards sin ; the other describes His 
sentiment towards the soul of the sinner. 

It is, therefore, an entire misconception of 
the nature of the atonement, to suppose that 



PRE CIO US CORNER - STONE, j g j 

it is some device whose object is to render an 
implacable Sovereign, to make a rigid Law- 
giver, merciful. The atonement does not in- 
fuse into the Deity any new attribute or qual- 
ity, which was not always an essential part 
of God's nature. God was always merciful. 
God was always ready and wilHng to forgive 
sm. His own language, confirmed by the 
most solemn asseveration, is : '^ As I live, I 
have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, 
but that he should turn from his evil way, 
and live.'' The Bible is full of the most 
touching assurances of God's merciful char- 
acter and disposition towards His creatures. 
He yearns over His sinful children with in- 
expressible tenderness. No fond earthly par- 
ent ever had such tenderness for a child as 
our Father in heaven has for us, and always 
had. If this had not been true, there never 
would have been any atonement. Law^— sub- 
lime, inexorable, majestic, unpitying, would 
II 



1 62 PRECIOUS CORNER-STONE. 

have issued its mandate of condemnation, and 
executed its penalty to the very letter. 

But that very expedient which objectors 
and cavilers denounce as a proof of the im- 
placability of God, is the great imperishable 
monument of His love. It is His own match- 
less expedient, not to create a fount of mercy 
within his heart, but to remove the barrier 
which infinite justice must oppose to the 
opening of that deep fount, and the leaping 
forth of its glad streams of forgiveness and 
love. Men who revile the doctrine of the 
atonement as inconsistent with the merciful- 
ness of God, cannot surely understand the 
rudimental truth of the gospel. '^ God so 
loved the world that He gave His only be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
Who devised this great scheme by which law 
could be vindicated and man be saved ? Who 
laid this corner-stone, this precious corner- 



PRECIO US CORNER - STONE. 163 

stone, that lost men might build securely on 
its sure foundations ? Let God Himself re- 
ply : ^' Behold, / lay in Zion a chief corner- 
stone, elect, precious." This precious stone 
was quarried in the eternal councils of the 
Godhead ; it was shaped and squared by the 
Almighty hand ; and by that same Omnipo- 
tent and loving hand it was laid in the fullness 
of time, as the sure foundation for the hoges 
of a sinful world. No suggestion of such an 
expedient as the atonement of Christ came 
from any outside source. From whence could 
it have come ? What created mind could have 
conceived such an expedient? What creature 
could have dared to venture such a sugges- 
tion to the King of kings? Out of the divine 
mind itself, out of the infinite heart of God, 
a mind and a heart alone capable of such a 
conception, came the wonderful idea of such 
an atonement for sin as would vindicate 
eternal law, and save a guilty world. '' Be- 



1 64 PRECIO US CORNER - STONE. 

hold, I lay in Zion a corner-stone, elect, pre- 
cious/' 

But men say again, in criticising the doc- 
trine of the atonement, that there can be no 
justice in requiring an innocent being to suf- 
fer for the guilty. If this corner-stone is laid 
in the blood of Christ — confessedly a pure 
and holy being — it was as gross a piece of 
injustice ; 3^ea, more so than to have pardoned 
a guilty world without any atonement at all. 
But the premise is false on which this conclu- 
sion is based. If, indeed, it could be shown 
that the sacrifice of Christ was an arbitrary 
or unwilling sacrifice, that Christ was forced 
to the cross by the edict of the Father, then, 
indeed, this great transaction would have been 
an awful breach of justice, and utterly un- 
worthy of a holy God. But it was not so. 
This great atonement was agreed upon in the 
eternal council of the blessed Three. The 
Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost were equal- 



PRE.CIOUS CORNER-STONE. jgt 

ly concerned in its conception and adoption. 
It was as voluntary on the part of the Son as 
on the part of the Father. It could never 
have been otherwise. The co-equal, co-eter- 
nal Son could not have been forced to sacri- 
fice Himself for guilty man. And had it been 
so, the sacrifice would have had no atonins* 

o 

power, no propitiating efficacy. But the glory 
of the atonement is, that the high contracting 
parties in it were equally free, equally bent 
on their sublime expedient of divine love, 
equally desirous to save sinful man, while 
equally jealous for the honor of the divine 
law. It was the fruit of that infinite justice 
and of that infinite love which we meet in the 
Godhead. It was the Child of that eternal 
aversion to sin and that everlasting pity for 
the sinner, which embrace each other in God, 
and which are equally grand and lovely attri- 
butes of the divine character. The Father 
gave the Son. The Son delighted to be given. 



I e6 PRE CIO US CORNER - S TONE. 

The Holy Spirit freely and joyfully undertook 
to apply the benefit of the atonement to the 
believer. And the glorious Trinity of the 
Godhead derive an infinite and eternal joy 
from its conception and consummation, as 
generation after generation of believing men 
build on the precious corner-stone of the 
atonement of Christ, the fair fabric of their 
eternal hopes. 

This, then, is the corner-stone on which we 
rest, the work of redemption by our divine 
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Blending 
Deity and humanity in perfect though mys- 
terious union, taking our nature. He obeyed 
the law which we had broken ; bore the 
wrath which we had incurred ; endured the 
penalty which we deserved, and thus satisfied 
divine justice and vindicated the spotless law 
of God. This offering was voluntary, ade- 
quate, and successful. Law rears no barrier 
now against the exercise of mercy. God the 



PRECIO US CORNER - STONE, i S^J 

Father can open His loving heart to the very- 
chief of sinners without a stain upon His spot- 
less throne. The perfect righteousness of 
Christ imputed to the believer, and received 
by faith wrought by the Holy Spirit in the 
soul, justifies the believer before the law, 
while the death of the Saviour on the cross 
pays the penalty of our sin, and takes away 
its curse. *' Being justified by faith, we have 
peace with God, through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." It is not on our own repentance ; not 
on our own goodness ; not on anything that we 
are, or can be, that we rest our hope of par- 
don, peace, and eternal life. Vain, indeed, is 
every such reliance. Rather do we build on 
the stone, the tried stone, the precious cor- 
ner-stone, the sure foundation, which God has 
laid in Zion. Our trust is in what Christ has 
done for us. We rest in His atonement ; in 
His intercession. We hang all our hope 
of salvation on His cross, and living and 



l68 PRECIO us CORNER - STONE, 

dying, on earth, and in heaven , our song shall 
be— 

*' Rock of Ages ! deft for me, 
Let me hide myself in Thee ! " 



PRECIOUS CORNER-STONE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PRECIOUS CORNER-STONE. 

IN our last chapter we endeavored to show 
that the ''corner-stone" and "sure foun- 
dation'' of the Christian's hope is laid in the 
Atonement of Jesus Christ. This is the grand 
expedient, the fruit of infinite wisdom and 
eternal love in the Godhead, by which the 
law of God is vindicated, while its condemna- 
tion is taken away from ever}^ believer. This 
is the '' Rock of Ages," on which a perishing 
world may rest ; and whoever puts his trust 
here "shall never be confounded." 

This corner-stone is one of the things which 
St. Peter calls " precious." And this chapter 

(171) 



1 72 PRECIO US CORNER -^ STONE. 

proposes to show how appropriately this sig- 
nificant epithet is applied to it. 

I need hardly say, that, in the sense of cost- 
liness, this corner-stone is '^ precious/' There 
is a great difference in the foundation-stones 
which are used for buildings. Sometimes the 
common rock of the neighborhood is rudely 
quarried, and with but little labor or cost is 
laid into the foundation. Sometimes a finer 
quality of stone, such as granite or marble, is 
employed, and then the process is more ela- 
borate and costly. The stone is carefully cut 
and shaped, and, it may be, is polished with 
much skill and labor, so that it is not only 
massive, but beautiful. This process involves 
labor, and time, and cost, and is only done 
when the edifice to be built is of a very costly 
and valuable character. A palace for a mon- 
arch, or a building intended for the seat of 
government and legislation for a great nation, 
may well have such a precious corner-stone, 



PRECIO US CORNER - STONE. 1 73 

such a costly foundation. But this precious 
corner-stone, of which St. Peter speaks, is in- 
tended for the foundation of a world's hopes — 
the corner-stone on which not only the indi- 
vidual believer builds, but on which the whole 
Church of Godj in all ages, and forever, is 
founded. The Church itself is built upon 
*' the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner- 
stone." When we consider the vastness, the 
extent, the beauty, the grandeur of this 
divinely -constructed building; when we re- 
member that its materials are gathered from 
all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and 
tongues ; that it is to be the most wonderful 
and glorious monument of the wisdom, power, 
and love of the Infinite God, and that it is to 
stand forever and ever, surely we cannot 
doubt that its elect corner-stone, its sure 
foundation, must be unspeakably precious. 
We must believe that the .process by which 



174 



PRECIOUS CORNER-STONE. 



the corner-stone was prepared for its place 
was a costly process. Such is the truth. The 
stone on which rests the hope of the Chris- 
tian, and the glorious structure of the Church 
of God, is no mere rough boulder plucked 
from the way-side, and rudely laid as the 
foundation of a cheap and temporary build- 
ing. The work of quarrying and shaping it 
was planned, with infinite skill, far back in the 
recesses of eternal ages. To its beautiful and 
•grand design, the boundless wisdom of the 
Adorable Trinity was devoted. The Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost gave to the work their 
skill, their labor, their care. It was no hasty 
design, no rough, cheap expedient ; it was 
the fruit of the august council of the skies, 
the product of the be^st wisdom, and the 
deepest love of the Everlasting God. Ages 
ago, the mighty plan was communicated to 
men. It was represented in type, and pic- 
tured in symbols and images, for generation 



PRECIO US CORNER - STONE. 1 75 

after generation. Spotless lambs bled and 
burned on countless altars to typify this pre- 
cious corner-stone. ^ Old patriarchs spoke of 
it to their children, and died in the blessed 
faith of its being surely laid even above their 
graves. A princely minstrel wrote his most 
beauteous Ij'rics in its praise ; prophets and 
seers spoke of it with the burning eloquence 
of lips touched with live coals from heavenly 
altars ; and all this before the grand process 
of shaping and polishing it for its place be- 
gan, Then came this costly process at last, 
*^ in the fullness of times.** In the humiliation 
of Bethlehem, in the soul anguish of Geth- 
semane, in the cruelties of the judgment-hall, 
in the unutterable agonies of the cross, in the 
dishonors of the tomb, behold the costly pro- 
cess by which this precious corner-stone was 
quarried, and cut, and shaped, and polished 
for its mighty place, as the sure foundation of 
our eternal hopes. No rude, worthless stone. 



1^6 PRECIO US CORNER - STONE. 

hastily selected, coarsely dressed, carelessly 
laid, is the elect, precious, sure corner-stone 
of the world's redemption, of the Church of 
God. What uncounted ages of wise design, 
w^hat immense periods of profound prepara- 
tion, what awful expenditures of labor and 
suffering were needful ere this corner-stone 
was laid in Zion ! As no building of earthly 
architecture can compare in dignity, beauty, 
and duration with that which a Divine 
Builder has reared upon it, as His eternal 
and glorious monument and palace; so no 
earthly foundation has the same right to be 
called precious as this divinely-quarried cor- 
ner-stone ! 

But the corner-stone of the believer's hope, 
the foundation of the Church of God, is not 
only precious in the sense of costliness ; it has 
other grand elements of value. 

// is a tried stone. Many a building has 
been founded on a corner-stone, that, when 



PRE CIO US CORNER - STONE. j *jj 

tried, has proven insecure. But this is a tried 
stone that has stood every test. Time has 
tried it. Time, that has destroyed many cor- 
ner-stones, has eaten out many foundations, 
has brought so many stately buildings to the 
dust, has not yet triumphed over this. Age 
after age has passed av^ay ; the old palaces 
and monuments of ancient civilization and 
grandeur have crumbled into dust ; the 
proudest architectural piles of the world's 
history have been vanquished by this ruth- 
less enemy ; but there is one corner-stone 
which has survived the tooth of time. In 
every age, among all nations, no one ever 
built on this foundation and was disappointed. 
What uncounted systems and expedients 
have been devised by men, have been incul- 
cated by sages, have been tried by multitudes 
of eager souls, and have been proved to be 
worthless. One by one, in long procession, 
they have passed away, and the place that 

12 



1 78 P RECTO US CORNER - S TONE, 

knew them, knows them no more. Bat this 
grand expedient for a world's great crisis still 
survives. The Cross still stands erect and 
sublime in the world's history. Later ages 
vie with earlier in their admiration and at- 
tachment. Jesus, the Crucified One, lifted 
up, still draws all men unto Him ; and the 
advancing ages, even to the last, shall only 
herald new triumphs for the great atone- 
ment, and twine fresh laurels for the brow 
that once was crowned with thorns. 

// has been tried by numbers. 

Numbers are often a test of strength. That 
on which a few may safely rest, may fail to 
sustain many. That must be an awful scene 
when a ship is wrecked at sea, and the boats, 
loaded to their utmost capacity, are obliged 
to repel the drowning wretches who implore, 
with the agonizing entreaties of dying men, 
to be taken on board. The test of numbers 
here is as frightful as it is conclusive. But, 



PRECIO US CORNER - STONE, 1 79 

blessed be God, this precious salvation by 
Christ, the corner-stone, fears no such test. 
The gospel ark, unlike that of the old patri- 
arch, is capacious enough to hold all that 
desire to enter and ride out the storm of 
God's wrath securely. This corner-stone is 
strong enough for all God's creatures to 
build upon. '' Him that cometh unto Me, I 
will in no wise cast out." '* Whosoever will, 
let him take the water of hfe freely.'' Just 
thmk, dear reader, how many have built on 
this corner-stone, which is Jesus Christ. The 
venerable patriarchs, the inspired prophets, 
the goodly fellowship of the apostles, the 
noble army of martyrs, the believers of all 
ages and nations since the world was made, 
that *' great multitude whom no man can 
number," have all built on the Rock of Ages! 
The countless myriads which have gone up 
from earth to cast their crowns at the feet of 
Jesus, and ascribe all the glory of their salva- 



1 80 PRECIO US CORNER - STONE. 

tion to the Lamb who bought them with His 
blood ; the ransomed of the Lord^ who, now 
on earth, are returning and coming to Mount 
Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon 
their heads ; a;ll these have rested their eternal 
hopes upon this '' tried stone ;" all have built 
upon this ''precious corner-stone/' And 
how nobly it has stood the test. Firm and 
well placed, broad and enduring, it stands to- 
day and invites the faith of a perishing world. 
Though such uncounted hosts have built on 
it, it is just as strong and sure as it was six 
thousand years ago. The atonement of Christ 
is, to-day, the only hope of lost men. The 
repenting sinner now must cling to the Cross 
of Jesus. '' There is none other name under 
heaven, given among men, whereby we must 
be saved,'' but His. There need be no other, 
for this is all-sufficient. Christ is like the 
sun. That great luminary has melted the 
snows of how many winters ; brightened the 



PRECIO US CORNER - STONE, i g I 

hues of how many springs ; ripened the fruits 
of how many summers, and mellowed the 
tints of how many autumns; and yet there is 
not a ray the less to gladden the world to-day. 
Christ is like a great river. For how many 
ages has it rolled down its waters to the sea, 
fertilizing all its banks, as it glided by ; and 
yet its offering to the sea is not a drop the 
less to-day. Tried by the test of numbers, 
Christ is precious ; He is just the same sure 
foundation now as if he had not held up the 
hopes of ages and generations of believing 
souls. 

// is tidied by the variety of those who have 
built upon it. 

Men of all ages have found in Christ Jesus 
and His redemption the sure foundation of 
their hopes. The Jew and the Gentile, bar- 
barian, Scythian, bond and free, have alike 
rested on this corner-stone. Men of all shades 
of character, from a Nathaniel to a thief on 



1 82 PRE CIO US CORNER - STONE, 

the cross, from a Nicodemus to a Philippian 
jailer, have found in Christ just the Saviour 
whom they needed. In architecture, you 
would scarcely use the same corner-stone for 
the cottage of the serf and the palace of the 
king. But the monarch and the serf alike 
can build their immortal hopes on this tried 
foundation. Every variety of temperament, 
every phase of character, every degree of 
moral degradation and guilt that is repre- 
sented in humanity, is met and ministered to 
in the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
With a divine flexibility and power of adapta- 
tion, the gospel addresses itself to all the 
varieties of human character and human 
need. For amid all these varieties there is 
the same radical and universal necessity — 
that which grows out of sin. There are a 
variety of diseases that afflict the body ; and 
they call for varied remedies. It is quackery 
only that professes to apply the same method 



PRE CIO US CORNER - STONE. i 83 

in every case. But it is not so in the thera- 
peutics of the gospel. Whatever be the out- 
ward phase, and however varied the develop- 
ment in each individual, there is something in 
every case that calls for the great atonement, 
that demands ^* the precious blood of Christ.'* 
And to no case has the remedy ever been 
applied in vain. The sinner, in every place, 
of every age, in every station, has built on 
this corner-stone. In wealth or poverty, in 
honor or obscurity, in learning or ignorance, 
in freedom or in bondage, the believing man 
has found in Christ a sure foundation. 

Surely, then, a stone thus tried, by time, 
by numbers, and by the variety of those who 
have built upon it, may well be called '*' a 
precious corner-stone." It is a great element 
of its value that it has been so thoroughly 
tested. When it is offered to sinful and con- 
demned men now, as the foundation for their 
hopes of pardon and justification, it does not 



1 84 PRE CIO US CORNER - STONE. 

come to them as some novel and untried 
expedient, which they may well fear will not 
be suited to their case. If I have a dear 
child who is dangerously sick, and a medicine 
is recommended to me which is a specific for 
that disease, it adds much to its value if I 
am told that, in a hundred similar cases, in 
my immediate neighborhood, it has been 
entirely successful. This makes it precious, 
indeed. I can adopt and use it with confi- 
dence, for it has been tried. And so this 
great remedy for the terrible malady which 
afflicts the moral world, whose end is eternal 
death, this great salvation which Christ has 
effected for men, may be adopted without fear, 
with the utmost confidence, by every man 
who feels that he needs something on which 
to rest his immortal hopes. 

A?td this corner-stone is precious^ also, be- 
cause it is ^' a sure foundation^ The work of 
Jesus Christ, as our Redeemer, is a complete 



PRE CIO US CORNER - STONE. i g 5 

work. It satisfies every requirement of God 
and every necessity of man. We must re- 
member that God builds on this corner-stone 
as well as man. The demands of His ethical 
nature must be met, the integrity of His gov- 
erment must be vindicated, and the claims of 
His justice must be satisfied. No scheme of 
salvation would be ''precious'' that did not 
effect this ; for it would not be complete, and 
could not furnish a sure foundation. But the 
obedience and suffering of Christ does all this. 
It is a perfect obedience, it is an infinite suf- 
fering ; so that the apostle asks, in triumphant 
tones : '' Who shall lay anything to the charge 
of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth ! 
Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ 
that died ! '' What are the claims which such 
a death cannot satisfy ? What is the Law 
which such an obedience cannot vindicate ? 
To distrust the ability of this corner-stone to 
make a sure foundation for the hope of even 



1 86 PRECIO us CORNER - STONE. 

the very " chief of sinners/* savors far more 
of unbelief than of true modesty and self-re 
nunciation. If God is satisfied with the great 
expedient which the Godhead devised, and 
carried out to such a complete consummation, 
what right has any man to doubt that he can 
rest securely upon the work of Christ ? He 
may be a great sinner; he may richly and 
consciousl}^ deserve the wrath of God ; his 
salvation may be a miracle of grace ; but the 
precious ^* blood of Christ cleanseth from all 
sin /' and whosoever believeth on Him shall 
be saved ! 

There is awful presumption in building 
on any other corner-stone tlian that which 
God has laid in Zion. But there is no pre- 
sumption in the very chief of sinners, when 
he puts his unwavering trust in the ^* Rock 
of Ages/' When we lose sight of the Cross, 
when we forget the wondrous power of the 
blood of Christ, we may well despond. There 



PRECIOUS CORNER-STONE. 



187 



is no sure foundation beneath us then. Salva- 
tion seems too great a thing to be achieved 
in the face of the broken law and outraged 
majesty of justice. So Michael Angelo, that 
saintly soul, expressed it in one of his son- 
nets : 

" Despite thy promises, O Lord, 't would seem 
Too much to hope, that even love like Thine 
Can overlook my countless w^anderings ; 
And yet Thy blood helps us to comprehend. 
That if Thy. pangs for us v^ere measureless. 
No less beyond all measure is Thy grace." 

Oh, yes ; this corner-stone, which is laid in 
Zion, is *^ precious,'* because it is '' a sure 
foundation.'' The great Master-builder of the 
Universe has laid it ; He knew what was to 
be founded on it ; He understood what it 
would be required to bear — it was to support 
the pillars of His eternal throne, and to sus- 
tain the hopes of a guilty world. He laid it 
wisely and well. He is satisfied with His 



1 8S PRE CIO US CORNER - STONE, 

own work. The splendid edifice of the re- 
deemed church is already partially com- 
pleted, resting upon this precious corner- 
stone. As each generation passes, course 
after course is added to the magnificent 
building. It begins to show itself among the 
nations. It rises higher, and waxes more 
lustrous and glorious every day. It will go 
on in its growth, reposing securely on its 
sure foundation, until the last believing man 
has been gathered into it, and the top-stone 
is laid in glory. The foundation will never 
sink; the corner-stone will never yield an 
inch. It is divinely laid, elect, precious — a 
sure foundation ; and he that builds upon it 
shall never be confounded ! 

Dear reader, have you built yet upon this 
precious corner-stone ? Are you relying for 
your eternal happiness upon Jesus Christ, the 
divine and Almighty Saviour, whose blood 
alone cleanseth from all sin ? This corner- 



PRECIG US CORNER - STONE. i g 9 

stone has been fully tried and found to be 
sure. No man has ever truly builded upon it 
and found that his building would not stand. 
It is sufficient for you. The atonement of 
Jesus Christ is ample for your justification at 
the hands of that great law v/hich you have 
broken. It is as true now as it was eighteen 
hundred years ago, that ^^ there is, therefore, 
now no condemnation to them that are in 
Christ Jesus ;'' for, " being justified by faith, 
we have peace with God, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ." If you build on any other 
foundation, you will not find it sure. No 
other corner-stone is so '^ precious" as this. 
Selected in the councils of eternal wisdom ; 
cut and fitted at infinite cost ; laid by the 
Omnipotent hand of the Great Architect of 
the universe, and for ages bearing up the 
hopes of myriad builders, it is the only sure 
foundation for a sinner's hope. Holy patri- 
archs built on it by faith, even when they saw 



1 90 PRE CIO US CORNER - STONE, 

it only through the veil of type and figure. 
Inspired prophets built on it, even though 
they died before their predictions of its glory 
as a foundation-stone were fulfilled. Noble 
martyrs built on it, and found that the wildest 
storms of persecution, and the fiercest assaults 
of the last enemy, could not shake it. Your 
godly fathers built on it, and found it sure. 
It stands before you the same precious, tried 
corner-stone, the same sure foundation — ^Jesus 
Christ — the Rock of Ages. Build on it, dear 
reader, at once, and your building will stand 
while the eternal sunshine of heaven gilds it 
w4th undying lustre. Build on anything else, 
and when the storm of death and judgment 
comes, it will fall ; and great, oh, how great, 
how hopeless, how irretrievably ruinous will 
be the fall of it ! 



EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRECIOUS 
PROMISES. 

" Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious 
promises ; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine 
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world 
through lust." — 2 Peter, 1:4. 



CHAPTER IX. 

EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES. 

WE are to consider, in this chapter, the 
last of the precious things mentioned 
by St. Peter in his -epistles. But though last, 
they are by no means least. He speaks, as 
we have seen, of " precious faith ;" " precious 
trial of faith ;'' '' precious Christ ;" " precious 
blood of Christ ;" '' precious corner-stone ;" 
and now, of ^' exceeding great and precious 
promises." This. last specification opens be- 
fore us a field so vast, that we can do little 
more than glance over its broad surface, and 
take a general survey of its richness and 
beauty. No pen can do justice to the prom- 
ises of God. The nature and the variety of 

13 ('93) 



194 



PRECIOUS PROMISES. 



the blessings which they contain ; the fullness 
and beauty of the language in which they are 
expressed ; the perfect assurance of their ful- 
fillment to every believer, and their wonder- 
ful power to sustain and cheer the soul amid 
all the vicissitudes of life, and in every pos- 
sible phase of Christian experience, all tes- 
tify to the greatness of this department of 
Divine revelation, and to the propriety and 
force of the language of St. Peter, when he 
says, ^^ exceeding great and precious prom- 
ises/' 

The promises of God to man, have refer- 
ence to His two-fold nature and its necessities. 
He is made for two worlds — the present and 
the future. He needs provision for both. 
Such provision is found in the promises. They 
comprehend all that he needs for the body — 
for his physical comfort ; all the essentials of 
life and activity and enjoyment for this pres- 
ent state of being. They assure him of all 



PRECIOUS PROMISES. igj 

needful helps to endure all possible trials in- 
cident to this life. The believer is assured 
that no evil shall permanently and hopelessly 
afflict him ; but that trouble shall either be 
taken away from him, or he shall be enabled 
to overcome it. The promises declare to him, 
on the authority of God, that there is no real 
good for this life which he shall not enjoy ; 
and that there is no real essential evil from 
which he shall not be finally and fully deliv- 
ered. They cover all his path — they are re- 
lated to every season ; they embrace every 
peculiarity of need ; they meet every demand 
of man's nature which lies between the cradle 
and the grave. For the needs and interests 
of the life that now is, the promises are ^^ ex- 
ceeding great, and precious." 

But it is in reference to their bearing on the 
soul and the future life, that their greatness 
and value are more fully seen. These are the 
most radical and imperative necessities of 



I g5 PRE CIO US PROMISES. 

man. It is a great thing to be assured of 
provision for the wants of the physical, but 
how much greater to be assured of adequate 
provision for the needs of the spiritual nature. 
The hunger of the body is sharp and urgent, 
but what is it to the hunger of the soul ? It 
is a great thing to know that we may expect 
provision for this brief and uncertain life. But 
of what infinite moment it is to be assured 
•that we shall be provided for in that unend- 
ing and changeless life which is before us, 
and into which we may be hurried at any 
moment. It is in these respects that the prom- 
ises are '^ exceeding great, and precious.'' 
The wise and discriminating Providence of 
God, in its provision for this life, is far sur- 
passed by the wonders of His grace in its 
ample and satisfying provision for the neces- 
sities of our immortality. To the humble be- 
liever are promised pardon of sin, peace of 
conscience, the complacent love of God, ade- 



PRECIOUS PROMISES. 



197 



quale strength for all the work and warfare 
of hfe, power with God in prayer, victory 
over all the assaults of the world and Satan, 
triumph in the hour of death, and '^ an inher- 
itance incorruptible and undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for him, 
as for one who is kept by the power of God, 
through faith, unto salvation." 

What great things these are ! What pre- 
cious promises must those be that assure us of 
them ! And the language in which they are 
conveyed to us, is not ambiguous or uncer- 
tain. It is clear, intelligible, and explicit. 
There have been long and earnest controver- 
sies in all ages, about the doctrinal teachings 
of the Word of God. Volumes have been 
written to explain, illustrate, and defend ut- 
terly antagonistic interpretations of them. 
Centuries of thought, discussion and strife, 
have been needed to crystallize tiiese doc- 
trines into sharp and permanent forms. But 



198 PRECIOUS PROMISES. 

the promises are declared in such plain and 
absolute terms, that there has been little op- 
portunity for misunderstanding or misinter- 
pretation. And all varieties of sects, schools, 
and denominations have united in regarding 
them as the common treasury of God's peo- 
ple, from Mrhose inexhaustible resources ade- 
quate supplies could be sought and obtained 
by believers of every name, and of every va- 
riety of necessity and experience. This glory, 
have all the promises of God. 

But the promises are not only intelligible 
and explicit in their declaration. They are 
sure and certain in their foundation and fulfill- 
ment. They are made by that God who can- 
not lie. They are from '' the Father of lights, 
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow 
of turning.'' They are the fruit of His free 
and sovereign grace. They are an essential 
part of the eternal covenant of redemption. 
They are based upon the work of the Lord 



PRE CIO US PROMISES. ' 1 99 

Jesus Christ, and are sealed with His most 
precious blood. They are adapted to our 
needs, but they are not founded upon our 
merits. They have a better and surer basis. 
They are confirmed to every believer by the 
witness of the Holy Ghost, by whom He is 
** sealed to the day of redemption.'' No man 
ever trusted in them and was disappointed. 
In them every believer may have '^ strong 
consolation, who has fled for refuge to the 
hope set before him.'' Every generation of 
God's people has rested securely in them, for 
the body and the soul, for life or for death, 
for time or eternity. 

*' The promises, therefore," says Dr. Samuel 
Clarke, '' being of such a nature, and con- 
firmed unto us by such authority and evi- 
dence, cannot but have very great and happy 
influences upon the mind, when seriously at- 
tended to and applied with faith ; especially 
as they are a means by which the Spirit 



200 PRECIOUS PROMISES, 

of God carries on His work upon the soul. 
They are the strongest arguments to persuade 
the sinner to turn to God ; the greatest en- 
couragements to a humble, believing depend- 
ence on the grace of Christ in the gospel, and 
the most powerful motives to sincere and uni- 
versal obedience, since by them we are assured 
that every penitent sinner shall find the most 
gracious acceptance ; that from the grace of 
Christ we shall derive sufficient strength and 
capacity for every duty, and that in keeping 
God's commands there is great reward. So 
that, would we but duly consider the several 
promises made to every exercise of grace, and 
every performance of duty, what a spur would 
this be to quicken our slow pace in the ways 
of holiness. What an encouragement to be 
steadfast and unmoveable and always abound- 
ing in the work of the Lord, for as much as 
we know that our labor is not in vain in the 
Lord. 



PRECIOUS PROMISES, 20I 

I. The value of the promises may be seen 
in their influence in keeping the mind of the 
believer free from anxious care and solicitude 
about his temporal interests. These interests 
being the first to press themselves upon us, 
cannot be ignored. The questions, '' What 
shall I eat, what shall I drink, and where- 
withal shall I be clothed?" are radical and 
fundamental inquiries. Food and raiment are 
essential to life and health and comfort. We 
must have them. It is irrational and affected 
to despise them. But what a degree of wear- 
ing anxiety and overstrained solicitude press- 
es upon many hearts, because they forget the 
promises of God. How many professed Chris- 
tians are the victims of constant apprehen- 
sion and unhappiness, for fear that they shall 
not be provided for in respect to their bodily 
wants and those of their children. Were 
there no promises of food and raiment, no 
assurance that He who feeds the young ra- 



202 PRECIOUS PROMISES, 

vens when they cry, and clothes the lily of 
the field, will not clothe His people and feed 
them with food convenient for them, there 
might be reason for anxiety and fear. But 
there are such promises, and their truthful- 
ness is illustrated and confirmed by the daily 
experience of God's people. '' I have been 
young, and now I am old,*' said the Psalmist,' 
" yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken 
or his seed begging bread.'' 

2. The same is true of the wants of the 
soul. None of the declarations of God's 
word are more absolute and. unequivocal than 
those which offer pardon, justification and free 
salvation to all that believe. It would be im- 
possible to quote them in detail. The Bible 
is full of them. When we have heard one, 
such as *' He that believeth shall be saved," 
or, " Though your sins be as scarlet, they 
shall be white as snow ; though they be red 
like crimson, they shall be as wool;" or, 



PRECIOUS PROMISES. 203 

'*Come unto me all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest;" or, 
'' Whosoever will, let him take the water of 
life freely," we have heard the spirit of them 
all. These promises of pardon and salvation 
to the very chief of sinners, on the simple 
condition of faith, are absolute and unequivo- 
cal ; and there is not a man in the world who 
may not appropriate them to his own case, if 
he will, and rejoice in the hope which they 
reasonably inspire in every beheving soul. 

So that a Christian, with these '' exceeding 
great and precious promises " of God, need 
have no anxiety for body or soul, for the bread 
that perisheth, or for that which satisfies unto 
life eternal, if he will only believe the word 
of the Great Promiser. There are promises 
of temporal blessings of every variety to 
the Christian — food and raiment ; protection 
against all forms of temporal affliction ; de- 
liverance from enemies ; support under trou- 



204 PRECIOUS PROMISES. 

bles ; the healing of diseases ; length of life, 
and everything which is generally esteemed 
a temporal blessing. It may be asked if we 
are to understand these in an absolute and 
unqualified sense, and if so, whether this is 
not inconsistent with the experience of God's 
people who are often in trouble in this life. 
We answer that these promises of earthly 
good are to be taken in a general sense, as 
indicative of God's love and goodness to- 
wards His people, but that their fulfillment in 
particular cases, is limited by His wisdom and 
judgment as to what is for the highest good 
of His believing people. It is the high- 
est proof of our Heavenly Father's love to 
us, that He ministers to our necessities rather 
than to our desires ; and He alone is compe- 
tent to judge what our necessities really are. 
In some cases, health, riches, reputation, tri- 
umphs, may be true blessings, and then we may 
expect that we shall receive them. In other 



PRECIOUS PROMISES. 205 

cases, the loss of these may be most for our 
good and for God's glory, and then He will 
take them away. We may, therefore, desire 
and seek after them on the ground of the prom- 
ises, but always in a spirit of faith in God's 
higher wisdom, and of submission to His 
most righteous will. He has promised these 
temporal blessings, and He always will bestow 
them in every instance where they, under the 
circumstances of each case, will really prove 
to be blessings. And, therefore, God cannot 
be chargeable with insincerity or unfaithful- 
ness to His promises, in those cases where 
any of His people fail to receive these coveted 
gifts. While He promises freely and sincerely 
to bestow them. He reserves to- Himself the 
right to judge in what particular cases it is 
best for him to bestow them, and in what cases 
it is best for Him to withhold or take them 
away. This consideration, with all candid 
Christian thinkers, will not derogate from the 



2o6 PRECIO US PROMISES. 

preciousness of the promises, nor weaken their 
trust in God's faithfulness. Temporal good 
may, or may not, be a source of the best well- 
being. Sometimes it may be a blessing, some- 
times a curse. God only knows when it will 
be one or the other. And our wisdom and 
happiness are always found in our willingness 
to leave the application of his many promises 
of temporal good in individual cases, to His 
infinite wisdom and His faithful and discrim- 
inating love. And thus there is one promise 
which we may believe will always be fulfilled : 
" Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose 
mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in 
theer 

When we turn to the spiritual promises, we 
find here also a great variety adapted to the 
varied wants of the soul. There are prom- 
ises of a general nature ; such as promises of 
pardon, justification, adoption, sanctification, 
perseverance in holiness, growth in grace, 



PRE CIO US PROMISES. 20/ 

strength for labor, patience for suffering, vic- 
tory over death, and final glory. 

Then there are promises of particular and 
special graces — such as the grace of faith, re- 
pentance, love, and meekness; promises of 
knowledge, wisdom, zeal, and courage ; prom- 
ises of God's care, guidance, support, and con- 
stant presence. There are promises which 
refer especially to Christ — such as the prom- 
ise of His individual love for His people ; of 
His calling them by name ; of His interces- 
sion for them ; His joy in them ; His gift of 
abiding peace to them ; His washing away of 
their sins in His blood ; His vanquishing all 
their enemies, and His abiding with them for- 
ever. 

Then there are promises which relate to the 
Holy Spirit — promises of His teaching, guid- 
ing, healing, comforting, and preserving be- 
lievers to the end. There are the promises of 
the ministry of angels in their behalf, of their 



2o8 PRE CIO US PROMISES. 

presence in critical moments and in great 
exigencies. And there are promises of future 
glory and blessedness, which " eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, and have not entered into 
the heart of man, of things which God hath 
prepared for them that love him/' 

There are also promises addressed to the 
Christian in youth and in age ; in prosperity 
and adversity ; in health and in sickness ; in life 
and in death. There are blessings of the fam- 
ily and the fireside ; of the sanctuary and the 
sacramental table ; of the going out and the 
coming in ; of the day and the night; of the 
sea and the land ; of the birth and the bridal ; 
of the cradle and the coffin. 

There are promises to fathers and to moth- 
ers ; to children and children's children ; to 
the widow and the orphan ; to the bond and 
the free ; to the pastor and the flock ; to the 
teacher and the taught ; to the ruler and the 
ruled. There are splendid promises to the 



PRECIOUS PROMISES. 



209 



Church — the Holy Catholic Church — which 
embrace all time, and the whole world, in the 
sphere of their fulfillment. 

In respect to these exceeding great and 
precious promises of spiritual blessings, it 
may be said that they are all absolute and 
sincere and faithful, and will certainly be ful- 
filled in the experience of all the true peo- 
ple of God, in connection with, and in pro- 
portion to, the measure of faith with which 
they receive and rest upon them. 

This answers the question, Who may claim 
these exceeding great and precious promises ? 
All need them. No man's path in life runs in 
such a favored course, that he will not need 
these promises at every step. No man de- 
serves them. The highest goodness of which 
the soul is capable, does not merit what is 
implied in the wonderful promises of God. 
Every man can have them who believes then^, 
and honestly seeks the aid and comfort which 
14 



2 1 o PRECIO US PROMISES, 

they give. And it is worthy of notice that 
these promises are adapted to foster and en- 
large that very faith, which is essential to our 
personal share in the gifts which they bestow. 

There are promises to men of weak faith ; 
to child believers ; to those who dare hardly 
to hope that they may claim them. The begin- 
ner in the divine life finds promises addressed 
to him in his weakness. Let him grasp them, 
though with a child's timid and trembling 
hand. They will be fulfilled in his increasing 
strength and courage, so that he can ask for 
more, and receive more, until he attains to 
such a stature and growth in Christ Jesus, 
that he can reach the loftiest and greatest of 
these exceeding great and precious promises 
of God. 

Now, all these promises are intended to be 
the Christian's daily food. A general belief 
in them is not enough ; they must enter into 
our daily thoughts ; they must be stored up 



PRECIO US PROMISES. 211 

in our memories ; they must be always at 
hand, so that when we need them most, they 
may at once supply that need. They ought 
to be " bound upon our fingers, and written 
on the tablets of our hearts." They ought to 
be our staff by day, and we should pillow our 
heads upon them by night. We should habit- 
uate ourselves to notice their fulfillment in our 
own experience, and in the history of our fel- 
low-Christians, and thus strengthen our faith 
in them more and more. We should make 
them the foundation of our earnestness in 
prayer, and our inspiration to diligence in 
Christian labor and activity. We should learn 
to expect their fulfillment, and not to distrust 
them. In this way our own experience of 
their faithfulness will be greatly enlarged, and 
our own efficiency in the Lord's work be 
greatly promoted. 

Take these promises, dear Christian read- 
ers, and make more of them than you have 



2 1 2 PRE CIO US PROMISES. 

ever done. Here is a mine of inexhaustible 
wealth. Yours, perhaps, has been thus far, 
only surface-mining. Dig deep, and you will 
find precious ore. Who need ever despair of 
any real blessing for the body or the soul, who 
exercises a firm faith in the promises ? Who 
is so great a sinner that they will not reach 
his case ? Who is so unworthy that they do 
not apply to Him ? Oh, these '' exceeding 
great and precious promises !" They are ut- 
tered by God. They are secured by the work 
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are sealed 
to us by the Holy Spirit. They are yea and 
amen, to all that believe. Believe in them, 
dear readers. Ask, and ye shall receive ; 
seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be 
opened unto you. No matter how great your 
need may be. Whatever is essential to your 
welfare and happiness is embraced in the 
promises, from a cup of cold water, to a full 
draught from the River of Life. 



PRECIOUS STONES. 

** And the foundations of the wall of the city were gar- 
nished with all manner of precious stones." — Rev. 21 : 19. 



CHAPTER X. 

PRECIOUS STONES. 

THE description of the glorified church, 
under the figure of a splendid and beau- 
tiful city, which is contained in this chapter, 
is familiar to all readers of the Bible. There 
is a gorgeous and glorious materialism about 
it which cannot fail to be impressive and sig- 
nificant. It is built of the costliest materials, 
and adorned with the most precious gems. 
Its gates are of single pearls, its walls are of 
jasper, its streets of shining gold ; in fact, the 
entire city seems, in the vision, to be a con- 
glomeration of the richest and most splendid 
gems, of every variety, united in a sym- 
metrical and majestic whole. It is a wonder- 

(215) 



2l6 PRECIOUS STONES. 

ful description — a picture gleaming with 
heavenly light, and arrayed in celestial 
beauty. We do not, indeed, understand it 
in a literal sense : but God has given us, in 
the most precious, natural objects, the means 
of comprehending, in some degree, the force 
of the metaphor and the significance of the 
image. We cannot fail to see that the Holy 
Ghost means to teach us, that what a great 
city built of gold and gems, would be in im- 
perial splendor, such the redeemed Church 
of God will be in the day of her final glory. 

The Church of God is built of living Chris- 
tians. They are the lively stones of the great 
spiritual temple. Thus St. Paul, writing to 
the Christians at Ephesus (2:21-23), says: 
"Ye are built upon the foundation of the 
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself 
being the chief corner-stone ; in whom all the 
building fitly framed together, growxth unto 
a holy temple in the Lord ; in whom ye, also, 



PRECIOUS STONES, 21/ 

are builded together, for an habitation of God, 
through the Spirit/' And, again, the Apostle 
Peter uses the same figure (ist Peter, 2 : 4, 5) : 
'' To whom coming, as unto a living stone, 
disallowed, indeed, of men, but chosen of God, 
and precious; ye, also, as lively stones, are 
built up, a spiritual house/' And when St. 
John, in his wonderful vision, shows us this 
grand and- beautiful city, and tells us that it 
is built of gems, and that the foundation of 
the wall of it is garnished with all manner of 
'' precious stones," we cannot but think that 
we have here the. completed, spiritual temple 
of the Lord, to which the apostles referred, 
and which is composed of materials, chosen 
and fashioned, and set by the hand of the 
Divine Architect Himself, of which nothing 
in nature can be an expressive image but 
her richest and loveliest gems, even redeemed 
souls, purchased by the blood of Christ, sanc- 
tified by His Word and Spirit, and formed 



2 1 8 PRE CIO US STONES. 

into a splendid edifice, which, from its corner 
to its cope-stone, is to be radiant with the 
light of God, and stand forever as the im- 
perishable monument of His glory ! 

And this view is strengthened when we 
remenlber that God Himself speaks of His 
own people as precious gems. '^And they 
shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that 
day when I make up my jewels^ These pre- 
cious gems, therefore, of which *' Jerusalem, 
the golden," is built, and twelve varieties of 
which are expressly mentioned as entering 
into its structure, are the saints of God, the 
chosen material of the holy city, the lively 
stones of which compose the spiritual and 
everlasting temple of the Most High ? 

It is quite worthy of notice, that, while it is 
a common thing for men to speak sneeringly 
and depreciatingly even of true Christians, 
God always speaks of them in the most hon- 
orable and exalted terms. The whole domain 



PRE CIO US STONES. 2 1 9 

of Nature is ransacked to find the most beau- 
tifiil, useful, and valuable things with which 
to represent them. The stateliest trees of the 
forest, the most valuable and fruitful of the 
productions of the soil, the rarest and costliest 
gems, the finest gold, are all used as illustra- 
tive of the Christian. And, as if this planet 
was not rich enough to furnish adequate 
imagery, the inspired writers soar into the 
firmament above, and describe a faithful 
Christian as one who shines ''like the stars 
forever and ever/* 

The analogy thus presented,* affords an 
interesting theme for meditation. It may 
give us higher ideas of the Christian caUing 
and destiny, and stimulate us to greater dili- 
gence and fidelity in that calling and for that 
destiny. 

Christians, then, as the stones, to be built 
up into the splendid structure of the New 
Jerusalem, are precious to God. They are 



220 PRECIOUS STONES. 

precious to Him, as being the subjects of the 
everlasting purpose and the eternal covenant of 
redemption. 

Suppose a venerable, powerful, and illus- 
trious king should summon to his presence 
one of his subjects, born in obscurity, and in 
no way likely to attract or deserve the special 
notice of the monarch, and should say to him : 
*^ From your very birth, and before your birth, 
I determined to make you the object of my 
special favor ; I determined to raise you to 
the dignity of a prince of the empire ; I 
determined to surround you, at any and 
every cost, with every influence that might 
train and educate you for that distinguished 
position ; I determined to put every pos- 
sible agency into operation that seemed 
likely to fit you to adorn my court and 
be a pillar in my kingdom ; and, at the 
cost of much pains and treasure, I have pur- 
sued this purpose steadily through all the 



PRECIO US STONES. 22 1 

years of your life, until I am ready to carry it 
out, and place you permanently in the loftiest 
place which a subject can occupy in my king- 
dom." Would not the inference be irresistble 
that the monarch felt the deepest interest in 
this individual, that he was precious to him, 
that he was like a gem in his estimation? 
What a profound impression would such a 
communication make on a truly manly and 
generous mind? How it would stimulate 
him to justify his monarch's choice and pur- 
pose, and by the cultivation of himself in 
every particular element of a noble and useful 
character, show himself worthy of his high 
vocation ? 

This is a very feeble and inadequate illus- 
tration of my point. Far more than this is 
true of every believer. From the depths of 
eternity itself the Divine purpose took hold 
of him and destined him for the station of a 
prince in the eternal kingdom of God. This 



222 PRECIOUS STONES, 

grand truth is taught us in very many pre- 
cious passages in the Word of God. St. 
Paul, writing to the Ephesians (i : 3-6), says : 
" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who 'hath blessed us with all 
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in 
Christ ; according as He hath chosen us in 
Him, before the foundation of the Avorld, that 
we should be holy and without blame before 
Him ; in love, having predestinated us unto 
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to 
Himself, according to the good pleasure of 
His will, to the praise of the glory of His 
grace, whereby He hath made us acceptable 
in the Beloved/V What a grand truth this is ! 
and it is repeated, again and again, in the 
apostolic writings. What estimation must 
the Infinite God have put upon man, that he 
formed an eternal purpose to make him a 
jewel in His Crown, and a living stone in 
His everlasting temple ! Connect with this 



PRECIOUS STONES, 



223 



all that was involved in the carrying out of 
this purpose — even the whole history of 
redemption, the incarnation, the suflFering 
life, the perfect obedience, the bitter, shame- 
ful death of God's own Son, the gift of the 
Holy Spirit to sanctify and seal the behever, 
to train and educate him, by all the combined 
and varied influences of Providence and 
Grace, for his high position and splendid 
destiny — and does it not show that the Chris- 
tian is like a precious stone in God's sight — 
one that He loves to set in His Crown ; one 
that He glories to place in His eternal 
temple ? 

How precious, too, to Jesus Christ, is the 
Christian. For his redemption the Eternal 
Son entered gladly into the councils of the 
Everlasting Father, and fulfilled His part in 
the scheme of a covenanted redemption. To 
seek out these chosen gems of God's treasury, 
He came to this world, and entered upon 



224 PRECIOUS STONES. 

that mission which was to bear Him through 
scenes of darkness and of blood. Bethlehem, 
Gethsemane, Calvary, ye can tell how pre- 
cious were the souls of men in the sight of 
the God incarnate ! In the humiliation, the 
agony, the blood, which shall be forever as- 
sociated with your names, the universe shall 
learn how precious in the sight of God the 
Son were those who, through these mighty 
processes, were to be prepared to make up 
the eternal and glorious structure of God's 
Church. 

Precious to the angels, too, who sung the 
birth-song of the infant Saviour over Judea's 
plains, who strengthened the tempted Man in 
the wilderness, who ministered to the agon- 
ized suppliant in the garden, who watched by 
the tomb of the Crucified, and published the 
grand fact of the resurrection to the desolate 
disciples, and who rejoice with angelic joy 
over one sinner that repenteth^ as over a pre- 



PRECIOUS STONES. 22 ■; 

cious stone for the temple of Christ's ever- 
lasting glory; precious to angels is every 
Christian, who, chosen in the eternal purpose 
of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, 
renewed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, 
guided and guarded, trained and polished by 
the providence and grace of God, is at last 
built into the holy and beautiful temple of 
God, a living stone, reflecting the glory of 
the Great Master-Builder in unfading and 
eternal brightness ! Now, it is these precious 
stones, these Christians, in whom God, and 
Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and all good 
angels, take such a deep and tender interest, 
who are all to be built up into this beautiful 
city and this eternal temple of God. They 
are all gems— all precious stones— all of great 
value to the Builder of the temple. 

But the vision of St. John teaches us that 
there is a great variety among these stones. 
He says : " The foundation of the wall of the 
IS 



226 PRECIOUS STONES, 

city was garnished with all manner of pre- 
cious stones/' Twelve different varieties are 
named, embracing gems of different color and 
quality (all costly and valuable), yet each with 
its individual and distinctive value. God, 
who has created the diamond and the ruby, 
the pearl and the emerald, and the other dif- 
ferent gems, and blended all their varied 
loveliness in the one kingdom of nature, does 
the same thing in His kingdom of grace. The 
stones that are to be built up into His ever- 
lasting temple are of a varied character. 
Some sparkle with the brilliancy of the dia- 
mond, others shed the softer radiance of the 
pearl ; one reflects the lustre of the emerald, 
another deepens to the glow of the ruby. 
There is a training for each, adapted to its 
character, and a place for each, according to 
its fitness. No man, therefore, need despair 
of finding a place for himself in the temple ; 
no man can disparage his fellow-Christian, for 



PRECIOUS STONES. 227 

each is shaped and polished for his own place. 
In the Church, there are different members, 
and all have not the same office. " Some are 
there to teach ; some to counsel and adminis- 
ter; some to care for the young ; some to 
visit the sick and the sorrowful ; some to at- 
tend to the temporalities of the Church ; some 
to be liberal givers, and some without any 
formal mode of action, come under- this des- 
cription, which applies to all, ' sons of God, 
without rebuke, shining as lights in the world, 
holding forth the word of life.' It is very 
beautiful to see how God, who has bound His 
world into a grand harmony, by its very 
diversity, has arranged for this same end in 
His Church by giving the members their 
different faculties of work — how the pure 
light, which comes from the sun, breaks 
into its separate hues when it touches the 
palace -house of Christ, with its varied cor- 
nices and turrets, till every color lies in tran- 



228 PRECIOUS STONES. 

quil beauty beside its fellow/*"^ So every 
member may feel that there is a place for .him 
in the Church, which he can fill better than 
another ; and that, by thus calling His people 
from all ranks, and with all varieties of en- 
dowment, He has secured that the wall of 
His spiritual temple shall be garnished with 
all manner of precious stones. 

This throws light upon much, in God*s 
providential dealings with His people here, 
that is mysterious and trying. As God knows 
exactly for what place in His temple each of 
His people are best adapted, so He knows what 
is the best training for each. With wise and 
kind discrimination He arranges the course 
of His providence, so that each of His gems 
shall have just the cutting and polishing that 
is needed to give to each his highest bril- 
liance. There is a difference between the dia- 
mond and the pearl, between the emerald and 
-^^ Rev. John Ker. 



PRECIOUS STONES. ^ 229 

the opal. Each must be treated according to 
its hardness, and must receive the peculiar 
friction which its nature and purpose re- 
quires. Therefore the skillful lapidary varies 
his process in each case, until all are brought 
to their finest finish, and are ready for their 
respective places and uses. So God wisely 
treats the precious stones which are to gar- 
nish the walls of His eternal and glorious city. 
The diamond must be so cut and pohshed 
that it shall sparkle with its own wonderful 
fire; the pearl must receive the treatment 
required to bring out its gentler and softer 
beauty. You may wonder why the provi- 
dence of God is so peculiar in your case ; 
you may complain that you are treated so 
differently from others ; you may chafe under 
the pressure that is brought to bear upon 
you, and ask, Why am I thus made to suffer ? 
It is all right. You are not in the hands of 
an ignorant or unskillful workman ; you are 



230 PRECIOUS STONES. 

in the hands of One who knows perfectly 
well your capacities, and the exact place for 
which you are fitted, and what is the precise 
training and discipline which you need to 
give you your finest lustre and your highest 
value. If you are a father of several chil- 
dren, and are a wise father, you study the 
temperament and capacit}^ of each one of 
your children ; you endeavor to ascertain for 
what line in life each is best fitted, by natural 
genhis or taste, and you vary your mode of 
education and discipline according to the 
peculiarities of each child. This one needs 
restraint, that one needs encouragement ; one 
needs to be held with a firm hand, another 
may be guided by a finger. It is just so in 
God's redeemed family. All His people are 
His dear children ; but there is a great variety 
of temperament and character among them. 
Each has a place to fill for himself; a place 
which he can fill well, and the wise and lov- 



PRECIO US STONES. 2 X \ 

ing God means to fit him for that place, and 
His skillful hand will adapt the training of 
life to that end ; so that, when each precious 
gem shall finally be set in its own place in the 
wall of the golden city, each will be seen 
shining with its own peculiar lustre, and '^ the 
foundation of the wall of the city will be gar- 
nished with all manner of precious stones/' 

I remark, again, that the fact that God has 
designed each one of His people for his own 
place in His beautiful city, invests each indi- 
vidual Christian with peculiar responsibility. 
In this world, honor and responsibility are 
generally connected. Distinguished position 
always involves special duties and obhgations, 
and it is a very painful and humiliating thing 
for a man to be placed in a position to which 
he is not equal. The Christian, then, should 
endeavor to ascertain what sphere God in- 
tends that he should fill in His Church, and 
then spare no pains to quahfy himself for it. 



232 



PRECIOUS STONES. 



This is precisely what St. Paul determined to 
do. He says, "Not that I have already at- 
tained, neither am I already perfect ; but I 
follow after, if that I may apprehend that for 
which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus;'* 
that is, "I mean to make it my great business 
to know and strive to attain to that precise 
end, which the Lord Jesus had in view when 
He apprehended me by His grace, and 
brought me into His kingdom.'* This is the 
duty of every Christian. He is to search 
carefully for the place and the work for which 
he may be best fitted. And he can find it, if 
he be honest and earnest in his search. There 
is scarcely an individual to whom God has not 
given some special faculty or opportunity for 
usefulness in His service — some place which 
he can fill and adorn. And we ought to try 
to discover what our best capacities and 
opportunities are. And we can be helped to 
do this by a study of ourselves and our posi- 



PRECIOUS STONES. 



^33 



tion, and by the judgment and counsel of our 
fellow-Christians. We may sometimes have 
a morbid sense of our unfitness for certain 
kinds of labor and responsibility to which 
we nevertheless seem to be imperatively called 
by the Providence of God and by the voice 
of the Church. In such cases, a humble, hon- 
est desire and determination to go forward 
and try to do our dut}^ will soon give us all 
the fitness which the position or work re- 
quires. But if we hold back from labor and 
responsibility, veiling indolence or cowardice 
under the mask of humility, we are defeating 
God*s methods, not only of training us for 
usefulness here, but of preparing us for a 
bright and honorable place in His Kingdom 
in glory. 

In the day and place in which we live, no 

. Christian, who is honest with himself, can be 

long in doubt as to the sphere in which he 

can work for God and for the world. The 



234 PRECIOUS STONES. 

paths for Christian work run, from your very 
doors, in all directions. Never was there a 
time when Christian agencies and activities 
were so multiplied and diversified. A field 
is open for effort in this city alone, which 
would afford full scope to the powers and 
affections of legions of angels. A dense mass 
of ignorance needs to be enlightened ; the 
crushing burdens of poverty call for relief; 
the sick, the aged, the widow and the orphan, 
demand your sympathy and aid ; every va- 
riety of benevolent and philanthropic move- 
ment invites your co-operation ; the Augean 
stable of public corruption requires a Chris- 
tian Hercules to cleanse it and save the city 
from hopeless ruin. This vast country, grow- 
ing every day more vast and powerful for 
good or evil, presents its claims for all those 
agencies which can exalt or embellish national 
character and life ; and the world is every- 
where open to Christian effort, and is sending 



PRECIOUS STONES. 



235 



the Macedonian cry, in every dialect, from 
continents and islands, " Come over and help 
us ! '' Where is the Christian who cannot 
find something to do for the honor of Christ 
and the good of his fellow-men? He who is 
willing to work or to give, need not pause for 
a field or an object. If he will only study his 
own capacities and appointments as truly and 
carefully in reference to Christian usefulness 
as he does in reference to the business of life ; 
if he will only go to his Lord and Saviour and 
ask, '* Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? *' 
he will soon find out what he can do, where 
he can work, and how he can make the most 
of himself and his opportunities for the glory 
of God and the good of the world ! 

The practical teaching, then, which we 
draw from this beautiful description of " Jeru- 
salem the golden,'' and the precious stones 
with which its walls are garnished, is, that 
every true Christian is one of God's gems, 



236 PRECIOUS STONES. 

intended for a place in this glorified Church — 
this everlasting spiritual temple of God — rep- 
resented by this splendid city. That every 
Christian has some capacity to shine in that 
building ; that the object of the varied dis- 
cipline of life is to fit each for his place, and 
enable him to fill and adorn it ; that life is full 
of opportunities for every one to do some- 
thing for his own spiritual training, and for 
God*s glory, which will tell upon the future ; 
and that every one ought to feel the power of 
these considerations to stimulate and inspire 
him to increased diligence and fidelity in do- 
ing all that his hand finds to do, with his 
might. It is a very noble destiny which St 
John reveals here to the Christian, and it ap- 
peals very strongly to a sanctified ambition. 
My friends, have any of us, as yet, made the 
most of ourselves as Christians ? If we be, in- 
deed, among God's precious stones, have we 
received as much polish as we might ? do we 



PRECIOUS STONES, 23/ 

shine as brightly as we should? and, if trans- 
ferred now to the eternal temple, would we 
have a very distinguished place in the New 
Jerusalem ? As we look back over our Chris- 
tian lives, can we not, must we not see that 
we have not made as much progress as we 
might have done in character and in work. 
Perhaps we can remember the time when we 
had more true, warm. Christian feeling, and 
were more active and useful in God's service. 
But, however that may be, we have yet op- 
portunity to reach a higher point of consecra- 
tion, and prepare for a higher place in God*s 
eternal temple. Let us improve what time is 
left us, as we shall wish we had when we 
come to its close. And when we meet our 
Lord at last, may we be taken and set as 
bright gems in the beautiful city, the '' foun- 
dation of the wall of which shall be garnished 
with all manner of precious stones ! '' 



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